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^hu^  l/4^fA  hUd  rnui^K. 


^Jjf^trv^ 


'PHE 


INDIAN    TRAVELS 


APOLLONIUS   OF:TirA.NA, 


THE   INDIAN   EMBASSIES    TO   EOME 


REIGN    OF    AUGUSTUS    TO    THE    DEATH 
OF  JUSTINIAN. 


/■^.\/h^i 


BY 

OSMOND  DE  BEAUVOm  PRIAULX. 


LONDON : 
QUARITCH,  PICCADILLY. 

MDCCCLXXIII. 


T)S4o9 


CARPENTIER 


T.  RICHAUDS,  37,  GREAT  QUEEN   STREET,    W.O. 


PREFACE. 


The  several  pieces,  all  relating  to  India,  which  make 
up  this  volume,  appeared  some  years  back  in  the 
Journals  of  the  Asiatic  Society.  I  cannot  say  that 
they  then  or  ever  excited  the  least  interest,  and  but 
that  there  were  omissions  and  faults  in  them  which  I 
wished  to  supply  and  correct,  I  certainly  should  not 
have  thought  of  republishing  them.  I  now  for  my  own 
satisfaction  reprint  a  small  number  of  copies. 

With  regard  to  the  Indian  Embassies  I  began  the 
series  in  the  hope  that  all  of  them  would  be  as  interest- 
ing and  important  as  those  to  Augustus  and  Claudius ; 
but  when  I  found  that  they  were  only  barely  mentioned 
by  historians,  and  the  later  ones  so  mentioned  that  it  was 
scarcely  possible  to  ascertain  whether  they  were  Ethio- 
pian or  Hindu,  I  was  led  on  to  enlarge  my  plan  and  to 
inquire  into  the  Kelations  of  the  Eoman  Empire  with 
India.     My  last  paper  had  but  just  appeared,  or  was 


iv  PREFACE. 

about  to  appear — it  was  read  in  1862  and  came  out  in 
1863 — when  the  late  M.  Eeinaud,  the  distinguished 
President  of  the  Soci^t^  Asiatique  published,  first  in 
the  Journal  Asiatique  for  1863  and  afterwards  in  a 
separate  form,  his  "  Eelations  Politiques  et  Commer- 
ciales  de  I'Empire  Eomain  avec  TAsie  Orientale."*  If 
I  had  been  aware  of  M.  Eeinaud's  intentions,  I  as- 
suredly would  not  have  ventured  on  a  subject  which  I 
regarded  as  especially  his  own.  As  it  is,  we  travelled 
the  same  road  and  naturally  enough  read  the  same 
guide-books,  but  we  read  them  with  a  difference.  Our 
stand-points  were  not  the  same.  He  sees  everywhere 
the  Eoman  Empire;  for  him  its  wealth  and  civiliza- 
tion acted  upon,  and  its  majesty  overawed,  the  most 
distant  nations;  from  the  heights  of  its  Capitol  he 
looked  down  upon  a  subject  world.  I  on  the  other  hand 
put  myself  in  the  Hindu's  place — and  this  Empire  spite 
its  greatness  then  faded  into  a  mere  phantom,  which 
still  loomed  large  in  the  hazy  distance,  and  which  now 

*  The  whole  title  of  his  work  is  "  Eelations  Politiques  et  Com- 
merciales  de  TEmpire  Eomain  avec  I'Asie  Orientale  (I'Hyrcanie, 
rinde,  la  Bactriane  et  la  Chine)  pendant  les  cinq  premiers  siecles 
de  I'Ere  Chretienne,  d'apres  les  temoignages  Latins,  Grecs,  Arabes, 
Persans,  Indiens  et  Chinois."  I  do  not  know  which  were  first 
published  of  the  two  journals,  the  English  or  the  French. 


PREFACE.  V 

and  again,  whenever  some  enterprising  Eoman  mercliant 
strayed  to  any  far  Eastern  land,  stirred  up  to  wonder 
and  speculation  kings  and  princes,  but  never  influenced 
their  policy,  and  never  occupied  the  imagination  in  any 
way  of  the  people. 

After  reading  Eeinaud's  work  I  must  own  that  I 
hold  still  to  my  own  view,  but  whether  after  reading 
Keinaud  others  will  hold  it  with  me  is  quite  another 
matter. 


TRAVELS   OF 


APOLLONIUS    OF    TYANA. 


THE 

INDIAN  TEAVELS  OF  APOLLONIUg;  hp'  ' 

TYANA.  .^'^   ■'•   '     •  > 


Philostratus,  in  liis  life  of  Apollonius  Tyanensis/  has 
given  an  account  of  that  philosopher's  visit  to  India. 
And  as  he  professes  to  have  drawn  his  materials  from 
the  note-book  of  Damis,  ApoUonius's  fellow-traveller 
and  friend;  as  moreover  he  professes  to  have  edited 
that  note-book  much  as  Hawkes worth  edited  the  jour- 
nals of  Cook,  we  may  fairly  assume  that  he  has  given 
an  original  and  authentic  account  of  India — and  indeed 
the  only  one  that  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  olden 
world  in  a  complete  state.  Again,  as  Apollonius  was 
the  only  Greek  who  up  to  his  time  had  visited  India 
for  other  purposes  than  those  of  war,  negotiation,  or 
commerce ;  as  he  visited  it  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  its  rites,  discipline,  and  doctrines ;  and  as  he  tra- 
velled unencumbered  by  a  retinue,  and  was  welcomed 
by  its  kings,  and  was  with  Damis  for  four  months  the 

1  For  another  account  of  Apollonius,  by  the  aid  of  Satan  a 
miracle  worker  and  maker  of  talismans,  reKeafxara,  bat  without 
mention  of  his  Indian  travels,  see  from  Domninos  (Malalas,  Chron. 
B.  X,  pp.  263-4,  Bonn  ed.,  and  Cedrenus,  who  refers  to  Philostratus, 
Hist,  i,  p.  431). 

B 


2  TRAVELS   OF 

guest  of  its  Brahmins ;  he  and  Damis  with  him  had 
every  opportunity  of  familiar  intercourse  with  all  classes 
of  its  population,  and  of  thus  acquiring  much  and  accu- 
rate information  on  matters  beyond  the  reach  of  ordi- 
nary travellers.  Philostratus's  account  then  is  full  of 
pT^omiae ;  and  I  propose  to  give  a  condensed  translation 
of  it,  and  afterwards  to  examine  into  its  authority  and 
value.  ' 

Towards  the  close  of  the  first  half  century  of  our  era, 
Apollonius,  then  upwards  of  forty  years  of  age^  and 
resident  at  Antioch,  set  out  to  visit  India,  its  Brahmins 
and  Sramans  (T6p/jLav6<;),  taking  with  him  two  family 
slaves  to  act  apparently  as  his  secretaries.^  At  Nine- 
veh, he  met  with  and  was  joined  by  Damis,  a  native  of 
the  place,  who  recommended  himself  to  his  notice  by  a 
practical  knowledge  of  the  road  to  Babylon,  and  an 
acquaintance  with  the  Persian,  Armenian  and  Cadusian 
languages.  Together  they  journey  on  to  Babylon,  but 
warned  by  a  dream  first  turn  aside  to  visit  Sissia  and 
those  Eretrians,  whom  Darius  five  hundred  years  before 
had  settled  there,  and  whom  they  find  still  speaking 
G-reek,  and  still  as  they  heard  using  Greek  letters,*  and 

^  Tet  he  speaks  of  himself  as  a  young  man,  -KpocrriKeiv  yap  v«^ 
avSpi  airoSrjiJLeiv — I.  B.  18  c ;  and  in  Domninos  he  dies  in  his  thirty- 
fourth  year. — Malalas,  u.  s. 

^  I  presume  this  from  their  qualifications  ;  the  one  is  a  good, 
the  other  a  quick  penman  :  fiera  Svuiv  OepairovToiv,  olirep  avrcp  irarpiKO) 
TjaTTiu,  6  juev  €s  raxos  ypacpuv,  6  5'  es  kuWos.     ih. 

*  Herodotus,  vi,  119,  cotemporary  with  the  sons  of  the  exiles, 
tells  of  these  Eretrians  and  of  their  use  of  the  Greek  language — 
nothing  improbable — but  Philostratus  intimates  that  when  Apol- 
lonius visited  them  some  four  hundred  years   alterwards,  they 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  3 

still  dwelling  near  that  wondrous  petroleum  well  so 
carefully  described  by  Herodotus. 

After  a  stay  at  Babylon  of  eighteen  months,  ApoUo- 
nius,  his  friend  and  attendants,  in  the  beginning  of 
summer  proceed  for  India  on  camels  and  with  a  guide 
furnished  by  the  Parthian  king  Bardanes.  Of  their 
route  we  know  only  that  it  lay  through  a  rich  and 
pleasant  country,  and  that  the  villages  they  traversed 
hurried  to  do  them  honour  and  to  supply  their  wants ; 

still  continued  to  use  the  Greek  language  and  character.  Is  this 
credible  ?  The  scattered  Jews  have  not  forgotten  Hebrew.  The 
Germans,  whom  Theodoric  in  the  sixth  century  located  in  the 
mountains  of  the  Vicentino,  and  who  are  known  as  the  "  Sette  Com- 
muni,"  are  to  this  day  Germans ;  and  the  French  refugees  who, 
after  the  edict  of  Nantes,  settled  at  Friedrichsdorf  in  Hesse  Hom- 
burg,  are  still  French.  But  these  fragments  of  nations  lived  in 
their  own  villages  and  married  only  among  themselves ;  and  the 
Jews,  if  unlike  them,  they  have  in  a  certain  sense  mixed  with  the 
peoples  among  whom  they  have  settled,  yet  they  like  them  have 
only  married  with  their  own  race ;  and  they  have  besides  a  sacred 
book  written  in  a  sacred  language,  the  study  of  which  is  imperative 
and  necessary  to  their  happiness  here  and  hereafter.  But  these 
Eretrians  when  they  reached  Susa  were  reduced,  so  writes  Philo- 
stratus,  to  four  hundred  men  and  but  ten  women.  Not  more  then 
than  ten  of  their  families  spoke  Greek  as  their  mother  tongue. 
Of  the  remaining  three  hundred  and  ninety  men,  all  who  married 
must  have  married  native  women,  and  their  children  spoke  Persian 
certainly  and  possibly  Greek— but  with  every  succeeding  genera- 
tion more  Persian  and  less  Greek— till  after  a  few  generations 
Greek  must  have  been  all  but  forgotten.  And  that  this  was  so 
does  not  history  by  its  very  silence  show  ?  Or  how  is  it  that  from 
the  age  of  Herodotus  to  that  of  Apollonius  we  never  hear  the  voice 
of  these  Eretrians  save  in  these  pages  ?  And  how  is  it  that  though 
so  near  to  Babylon  they  escaped  the  notice  of  Alexander  and  his 
historians,  who,  the  one  so  signally  punished,  and  the  other  so 
carefully  recorded  the  punishment  of  the  perfidious  and  self-exiled 
Branchidse  ? — Strabo,  B.  xi,  xii,  c.  49. 


4  TRAVELS    OF 

for  a  gold  plate^  on  their  leading  camel  announced  them, 
guests  of  the  king.  We  then  hear  of  them  enjoying 
the  perfumed  air^  at  the  foot  of  Caucasus,  the  mountain 
range  which,  while  it  separates  India  from  Media,  ex- 
tends by  one  of  its  branches  to  the  Eed  SeaJ  Of  this 
Caucasus,  they  heard  from  the  barbarians  myths  like 
those  of  the  Greek.  They  were  told  of  Prometheus 
and  Hercules,  not  the  Theban,  and  of  the  eagle ;  some 
pointed  to  a  cavern,  others  to  the  mountain's  two  peaks, 
a  stadium  apart,  as  the  place  w^here  Prometheus  was 
bound ;  and  his  chains,  though  of  what  made  it  is  not 
easy  to  guess,^  still  hung,  Damis  says,  from  the  rocks. 
His  memory  too  is  still  dear  to  the  mountaineers,  who 
for  his  sake  still  pursue  the  eagle  w^ith  hate ;  and  now 
lay  snares  for  it,  and  now  with  fiery  javelins  destroy  its 
nest.^     On  the  mountain  they  find  the  people  already 

^  So  Marco  Polo  relates  that  the  monks  sent  by  Kublai  Khan 
on  an  embassy  to  the  Pope,  receive  "  une  table  d'or  en  laquel  se 
contenoit  ke  les  trois  messages  en  toutes  les  pars  qu'il  alaissent 
lor  deust  estre  donnee  toutes  les  messions  que  lor  bazongnoit  et 
ohevalz  et  homes  por  lor  escodre  de  une  terre  a  I'autre." — P.  6, 
Ed.  Societe  Geographique. 

'^  So  Burnes  describes  the  plain  of  Peshawar,  *'  thyme  and  vio- 
lets perfumed  the  air,"  (Bokhara,  ii,  70).  At  Muchnee  "  a  sweet 
aromatic  smell  was  exhaled  from  the  grass  and  plants."  (ih.,  101.) 

7  Wilford  says  "  the  Indian  ocean  is  called  Arunoda,  or  the  Red 
Sea,  being  reddened  by  the  reflection  of  the  solar  beams  from 
that  side  of  Meru  of  the  same  colour."  (As.  Ees.,  viii,  p.  320,  8vo.) 

s  Kai  Seafia  6  Aafxis  an)<p9ai  toop  irerpuv  \iyci,  ov  padia  cvfi^aKMiv 
rtiv  v\riv. — II.  B.  3  c. 

9  The  same  tale  is  in  Arrian  and  Strabo.  Wilford  thus  accounts 
for  it :  not  far  from  Banyam  is  the  den  of  Garuda,  the  bird-god ; 
he  devoured  some  servants  of  Maha  Deva,  and  this  drew  upon  him 
the  resentment  of  that  irascible  deity,  whose  servants  are  called 
Pramat'has.  As.  Ees.  vi,  312-3,  corrected  by  viii,  259,  and  Eadja 
Taranjini,  i,  p.  414. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  0 

inclined  to  black/^  and  the  men  four  cubits  high  :  on 
the  other  side  the  Indus  the  men  reached  five  cubits.^ ^ 
On  their  way  to  the  river,  as  they  were  going  along  in 
the  bright  moonshine,  they  fell  in  with  an  Empusa,  who 
now  in  this  form  now  in  that  followed  after  them ;  until 
Apollonius,  and  at  his  instigation  his  companions,  at- 
tacked it  with  scoffs  and  jeers,  the  only  safeguard  against 
it,  and  it  fled  away  jabbering. ^^ 

As  they  approached  the  summit  of  the  mountain, — 
the  dwelling  of  the  Gods  as  their  guide  told  them, — 
they  found  the  road  so  steep  that  they  were  obliged  to 
go  on  foot.  On  the  other  side,  in  the  country  between 
Caucasus  and  the  Cophen/^  they  met  men  riding  on 
elephants,  but  they  Avere  only  elephant  herdsmen ; 
others  on  dromedaries,  which  can  run  1000  stadia  in  a 
day  without  rest.^*  Here  an  Indian  on  a  dromedary 
rode  up  to  them  and  asked  their  guide  whither  they 

^0  Strabo,  xv,  I,  §  13,  Arrian,  Indica,  c.  vi. 

11  Onesicritus,  Frag.  Hist.  Alex.  Didot,  p.  55,  §  25.  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  (Correspondence)  remarks  on  the  great  height  of  the  Bengal 
Sepoys;  Sir  C.  Napier  (Life)  thinks  our  infantry  average  two 
inches  below  them,  but  cover  more  ground.  Tall  men,  therefore ; 
but  five  cubits  ! 

'2  At  the  foot  of  the  Indus  and  Cabool  river... an  ignis  fatuus 
shows  itself  every  evening. — Burnes,  II,  p.  68.  And  consult  Ma- 
soudi's  account  of  the  goule  and  the  mode  in  which  the  Arabs 
rid  themselves  of  it. — Les  Prairies  d'or.  III,  p.  314,  tr.  de  la  Societe 
Asiatique. 

'3  Cophen,  i.  e.  Cabool.  Caucasus  Gravakasas,  the  bright  rock 
mountain,  Bohlen,  Das  Alte  Indien,  I,  p.  12.  "  Scyth8e...Cauca- 
sum  montem  Groucasum,  h.  e.,  nive  candidum  appellavere.*' — 
Plin.  Hist.  Nat.,  vi,  19. 

1*  Elphinstone  says,  "  An  elderly  minister  of  the  Eaja  of  Bika- 
neer...had  just  come  on  a  camel  one  hundred  and  seventy- five 
miles  in  three  days."  (Caubul,  Introduction,  p.  230,  I,  v.)  Sir  C. 
Napier  mentions  a  march  of  eighty  or  ninety  miles  by  his  camel 
corps  without  a  halt  (Life  of  Sii-  C.  H.  Napier,  II,  418),  and  has 


6  TRAVELS    OF 

were  going ;  and  when  he  was  told  the  object  of  their 
journey  he  told  it  again  to  the  herdsmen,  who  shouted  for 
joy,  called  to  them  to  come  near,  and  gave  them  wine 
and  honey,  both  got  from  the  palm ;  and  also  slices  of 
lion  and  panther  flesh,  just  killed.^^  They  accepted 
everything  but  the  flesh,  and  rode  onward  in  an  easterly 
direction. 

At  a  fountain  they  sat  down  to  dine  ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  conversation,  ApoUonius  observed  that  they 
had  met  many  Indians  singing,  dancing,  and  rolling 
about  drunk  with  palm  wine:^^  and  that  the  Indian 
money  was  of  orichalcum  and  bronze — ^purely  Indian, 
and  not  stamped  like  the  Eoman  and  Median  coins. ^'' 

They  crossed  the  Cophen,  here  not  very  broad  or 

no  doubt  with  riding  camels  of  marching  two  hundred  miles  in 
forty-eight  hours. — III,  78. 

15  An  exaggeration  of  a  remark  of  Arrian*s  probably  :  ^iTO(t>ayoi 
5€...Ii'5oi  eiaiv,  daoi  ye  fir}  opeioi  avruw  ovroi  Se  ra  6r}pfia  Kpea  anfovrai 
("Indica,"  xvii,  §  5),  e.  g.  "bear's  flesh  and  anything  else  they  can 
get"  (Elphinstone  of  Caufiristaun,  ih.,  II,  434),  "  they  all  eat  flesh 
half  raw"  {ih.,  438).  Sir  C.  Malet  in  a  letter  to  Forbes  tells  of  a 
lion  killed  by  him  near  Cambay.  "The  oil  of  the  lion  was  ex- 
tracted by  stewing  the  flesh  when  cut  up  with  a  quantity  of  spices  : 
the  meat  was  white  and  of  a  delicate  appearance,  and  was  eaten 
by  the  hunters."— Orient.  Mem.,  II,  p.  182,  8vo.  Sir  H.  Holland, 
in  his  Eemains,  speaks  of  having  tasted  "  filet  de  lion"  in  Algeria, 
but  of  it  as  coarse  and  unpleasant. 

16  Of  the  same  mountaineers,  Elphinstone  :  "  they  drink  wine  to 
excess"  {ih.)  And  see  from  the  Karnaparva  an  account  of  the 
people  of  the  Panjab,  their  irreverence,  drunkenness,  and  disso- 
luteness, to  be  matched  however  in  our  moral  and  Christian  Lon- 
don  (Slokas,  11-13 ;  in  the  Appendix  to  vol.  i  of  Raj.  Taran.,  562). 
JElian,  i,  61,  speaks  of  the  Indian  drinking  bouts ;  Pliny  of  the 
wine  :  "  Eeliquos  vinum,  ut  Indos,  palmis  exprimere"  (Hist.  Nat., 
vi,  32)  :  the  Vishnu  Purana  of  wine  from  the  Kadamba  tree. — 
P.  571,  note  2. 

17  The  Indian  money  is :  u\7j  KfKoix^euixevri,  metal  refined, prepared ; 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  7 

deep,  themselves  in  boats,  their  camels  on  foot,  and 
now  entered  a  country  subject  to  a  king.  Here  they 
saw  Mount  Nysa ;  it  rises  up  to  a  peak,  like  Tmolus^^ 
in  Lydia.  It  is  cultivated,  and  its  ascent  has  thus  been 
made  practicable.  On  its  summit  they  found  a  moderate 
sized  temple  of  Bacchus ;  this  temple  was  a  circular 
plot  of  ground,  enclosed  by  a  hedgerow  of  laurels,  vines, 
and  ivy,^^  all  of  which  had  been  planted  by  Bacchus 
himself,  and  had  so  grown  and  intertwined  their 
branches  together  as  to  form  a  roof  and  walls  impervious 
to  the  wind  and  rain.  In  the  interior  Bacchus  had 
placed  his  own  statue — in  form  an  Indian  youth,  but  of 
white  stone.  About  and  around  it  lay  crooked  knives, 
baskets  and  wine-vats  in  gold  and  silver,  as  if  ready  for 
the  vintage.  Aye,  and  the  cities  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountain  hear  and  join  in  his  orgies,  and  Nysa  itself 
quakes  with  them. 

About  Bacchus,2^Philostratus  goes  on  to  say — whether 

and  the  Eoman  K^xf^pay/xsp-n,  stamped.  In  Menu's  time  gold  and 
silver  coins  were  probably  unknown,  for  he  gives  (viii,  131)  "  the 
names  of  copper,  silver,  and  gold  weights  commonly  used  among 
men,"  TAtj  KeKofirpiv/xevr),  probably;  but  when  ApoUonius  visited 
India  we  know  that  money,  gold  and  silver  coins,  were  current, 
issued  by  the  Indo-Greek  and  Indo-Scythic  kings,  vide  Lassen, 
**  Baktrische  Konige,"  passim. 

*8  Nishadha,  probably  to  the  south  of  Meru  (Vishnu  Purana, 
167).  Arrian  similarly  connects  Tmolus  with  Nysa.  —  Exped. 
Alex.,  V,  1. 

19  Laurels  and  ivy  Alexander  finds  on  Meru  ;  vines  too  by  impli- 
cation (Arrian,  Exped.,  v,  ii,  §  6),  but  vines  on  which  the  grapes 
do  not  ripen  (Strabo,  xv,  §  8).  Burnes  says  that  in  Cabool  the 
vines  are  so  plentiful  that  the  grapes  are  given  for  three  months 
in  the  year  to  cattle  \^ut  sup.,  ii,  131.  See  also  Wilson's  Ariana 
Antiq.,  p.  193). 

^  Chares,  Hist.  Alex.,  p.  117,  §  13,  one  of  the  historians  of  Alex- 


8  TRAVELS   OF 

speaking  in  his  own  person  or  from  tlie  journal  of  Damis 
I  know  not — Greeks  and  Hindus  are  not  agreed;  for 
tlie  former  assert  that  the  Theban  Bacchus  with  his 
bacchanals  conquered  and  overran  India,  and  they  cite, 
among  other  proofs,  a  discus  of  Indian  silver  in  the 
treasury  at  Delphi,  with  this  inscription :  "  Bacchus, 
Jove  and  Semele's  son,  from  India  to  the  Delphian 
Apollo."  But  of  the  latter,  the  Indians  of  the  Caucasus 
believe  that  he  was  an  Assyrian  stranger,  not  un- 
acquainted however  with  him  of  Thebes ;  while  those  of 
the  Indus  and  Ganges  declare  that  he  was  the  son  of 
the  Indus,^^  and  that  the  Theban  Bacchus  was  his  dis- 
ciple and  imitator,  though  he  called  himself  the  son  of 
Jove,  and  pretended  to  have  been  born  of  Jove's  thigh,^^ 
/mrjpo^f  Meros,  a  mountain  near  to  N"ysa.  They  add, 
that  in  honour  of  his  Indian  prototype,  he  planted  Nysa 
with  vines  brought  from  Thebes,  and  on  Nysa  the  Greek 
historians  assert  that  Alexander  celebrated  the  Bacchic 
orgies,^^  but  the  mountaineers  will  have  it  that  Alex- 
ander, speaks  of  an  Indian  god,  'Sopoadeios,  Sanscrit,  Suradevas  (von 
Bohlen),  Suryadeva,  the  Sun  God  (ScLlegel,  Ind.  Bib.,  i,  250)  ; 
whicli  being  interpreted  is  oivoiroios,  tlie  wine  maker ;  but  the  Vishnu 
Parana  knows  of  no  wine  god,  only  of  a  wine  goddess  (Varuna, 
vide,  pp.  76,  571,  4to.  ed.)  In  general,  however,  Bacchus  may  be 
identified  with  Siva,  and  Hercules  with  Vishnu  and  Krishna. 

21  For  the  Indo-Bacchus  myth,  see  Arrian,  v,  i,  who  receives  it 
with  hesitation ;  and  Strabo,  xv,  I,  9,  who  rejects  it ;  Lassen,  Ind. 
Alt.,  II,  133 ;  von  Bohlen,  ut  sup.,  I,  142 ;  and  Schwanbeck  on 
Megasthenes,  "  Frag.  Hist.,"  II,  420,  Didot. 

22  «  Aroushi  fille  de  Manou  fut  I'epouse  de  ce  sage.  Elle  con9ut 
de  lui  ce  fameux  Aaurva  qui  vint  au  monde  en  per9ant  la  cuisse 
de  son  pere." — Mahabharata,  i,  278;  Fauche,  tr. 

23  According  to  Arrian,  ut  sup.,  and  II,  5,  it  was  Meru  that 
Alexander  ascended,  and  on  Meru  that  he  feasted  and  sacrificed  to 
Bacchus. 


APOLLONIUS    OF   TYANA.  9 

ander,  notwithstanding  his  love  of  glory  and  of  anti- 
quity, never  ascended  the  mountain,  but  satisfied  him- 
self with  prayer  and  sacrifice  at  its  foot.  He  so  feared 
lest  the  sight  of  the  vines  should  raise  in  his  soldiers, 
long  accustomed  to  water,  a  longing  for  wine  and  the 
ease  and  pleasures  of  home. 

The  rock  Aornus,^*  though  at  no  great  distance  from 
Nysa,  Darnis  says  they  did  not  visit,  as  it  was  somewhat 
out  of  their  way.  He  heard  however  that  it  had  been 
taken  by  Alexander,  and  was  fifteen  stadia  in  Jieight ; 
and  that  it  w^as  called  Aornus,  not  because  no  bird 
could  fly  over  it,  but  because  there  was  a  chasm  on  its 
summit  which  drew  down  to  it  all  birds,  much  like  the 
Parthenon  at  Athens,  and  several  places  in  Phrygia  and 
Lydia.25 

On  their  way  to  the  Indus,  they  fell  in  with  a  lad 
about  thirteen  years  old  riding  an  elephant  and  urging 
him  ojk  with  a  crooked  rod,  which  he  thrust  into  him 
like  an  anchor.  On  the  Indus  itself  they  watched  a 
lierd  of  about  thirty  elephants,  whom  some  huntsmen 
were  pursuing.^^  Apollonius  admired  the  sagacity  the 
elephants  displayed  in  crossing  the  river ;  the  smallest 
and  lightest  led  the  way,  the  mothers  followed  holding 

^  Strabo,  xv,  L.  i,  §  8.  Aornus  ;  Awara,  Awarana,  a  stockade. — 
Wilson,  Ariana  Antiqua,  p.  192;  but  Eenas  according  to  v.  Bohlen, 
and  Rani-garh  according  to  Lassen,  Indische  Alterthums :  140, 
note  7. 

25  See  Eustathius  Com.  in  Dionys.,  p.  403,  II  Geog.  Min.  Ac- 
cording to  one  of  his  authorities,  the  lake  Lycophron  like  the  lake 
Aornus  was  impassable  to  birds  because  of  its  noisome  exhalations. 

26  Just  in  the  same  locality  (see  Arrian,  IV,  xxx,  7)  Alexander 
first  sees  a  troop  of  elephants,  and  afterwards  joins  in  an  elephant 
hunt. 


10  TRAVELS    OF 

up  tlieir  cubs  with  their  tusks  and  trunks,  while  the 
largest  brought  up  the  rear.  He  spoke  of  their  docility ; 
their  love  for  their  keeper,  how  they  would  eat  out  of 
his  hand  like  dogs,  coax  him  with  their  trunks,  and,  as 
he  had  seen  among  the  nomads,  open  wide  their  mouths 
for  him  to  thrust  his  head  down  their  throats.  He  told 
too,  how  during  the  night  they  would  bewail  their  sla- 
very, not  with  their  usual  roar,  but  with  piteous  moans ; 
and  how,  out  of  respect  for  man,  they  would  at  his 
approach  stay  their  wailing;  and  he  referred  their 
docility  and  ready  obedience  more  to  their  own  self- 
command  and  tractable  nature,  than  to  the  skill  or  power 
of  their  guide  and  rider.  From  the  people  they  heard 
that  elephants  were  found  in  the  marsh,  the  mountain, 
and  the  plain.  According  to  the  Indians,^''  the  marsh 
elephant  is  stupid  and  idle ;  its  teeth  are  few  and  black, 
and  often  porous  or  knotted,  and  will  not  bear  the  knife. 
The  mountain  elephants  are  treacherous  and  malignant, 
and,  save  for  their  own  ends,  little  attached  to  man ; 
their  teeth  are  small,  but  tolerably  white,  and  not  hard 
to  work.  The  elephants  of  the  plain  are  useful  animals, 
tractable  and  imitative ;  they  may  be  taught  to  write, 
and  to  dance  and  jump  to  the  sound  of  the  pipe  f^  their 
teeth  are  very  long  and  white  and  may  be  easily  cut  to 
any  shapes.  The  Indians  use  the  elephant  in  war ;  they 
fight  from  it  in  turrets,  large  enough  for  ten  or  fifteen 
archers  or  spearmen ;  and  they  say  that  it  will  itself 

2''  All  this  was  borrowed  probably  from  Juba,  but  is  so  put  as  to 
seem  to  rest  on  Hindu  authority ;  for  ^lian,  §  4 ;  xiii,  II,  1,  of  the 
kinds  of  elephants. — tovs  h^v  e/c  tuv  €\<»v  aKiaKofievovs  avorjTovs  Tjyovv- 
Tai  IvSoi. 

'Q  Confer  Porphyry  de  Abstinentia,  III,  15 ;  died  a.d.  305. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  11 

join  in  the  fight,  holding  and  throwing  the  spear  with 
its  trunk  as  with  a  hand.  The  Indian  elephant  is  of  a 
large  size,  as  much  larger  than  the  Lybian  as  this  than 
the  Nissean  horse.  It  lives  to  a  great  age,  and  Apol- 
lonius  saw  one  in  Taxila  which  had  fought  against 
Alexander  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  before, 
and  which  Alexander  had  honoured  with  the  name  of 
Ajax.  On  its  tusks  were  golden  bracelets,  with  this 
inscription:  ''Ajax  to  the  sun,  from  Alexander,  the  son 
of  Jove."  The  people  were  accustomed  to  anoint  it 
with  unguents,  and  ornament  it  with  garlands."^ 

When  about  to  cross  the  Indus,  their  Babylonian 
guide,  who  was  unacquainted  with  the  river,  presented 
to  the  Satrap  of  the  Indus  a  letter  from  Bardanes.  And 
the  Satrap,  out  of  regard  to  the  king,  though  no  ofi&cer 
of  his,  supplied  them  with  his  own  barge  for  them- 
selves, boats  for  their  camels,  and  a  guide  to  the  Hydra - 
otis.  He  also  wrote  to  his  sovereign,  to  beg  him  that, 
in  his  treatment  of  this  Greek  and  truly  divine  man,  he 
would  emulate  the  generosity  of  Bardanes. 

Where  they  crossed,  the  Indus  was  forty  stadia  in 
breadth.^^     It  takes  its  rise  in  the  Caucasus  f^  and,  from 

29  Pliny  (vili,  v)  describes  the  elephant  as  crossing  rivers  in  the 
same  way ;  he  speaks  of  their  wonderful  self-respect,  "  mirus 
pudor,"  and  of  one  called  Ajax;  Arrian  (Indica,  c.  14  and  15)  of 
their  grief  at  being  captured,  of  their  attachment  to  their  ke*^pers, 
their  love  of  music,  and  their  long  life  extending  though  to  but 
two  hundred  years  (Onesicritus  gives  them  three  hundred,  and 
sometimes  five  hundred  years. — Strabo,  xv) ;  JElian  (xiii,  §  9)  and 
Pliny  (viii)  state  that  they  carry  three  warriors  only,  and  are  much 
larger  than  the  African.  The  division  into  marsh  and  plain,  etc., 
I  suspect  is  from  Juba. 

*•  Ctesias,  488,  says  the  Indus  is  forty  stadia  where  narrowest. 


12  TR/VVELS   OF 

its  Yerj  fountain,  is  larger  {/jbet^co  avroOev)  than  any 
other  river  in  Asia.'^^  In  its  course  it  receives  many 
navigable  rivers.  Like  the  Mle^^  it  overflows  the 
country,  and  deposits  a  fertilizing  mud,  which,  as  in 
Egypt,  prepares  the  land  for  the  husbandman.  It 
abounds,  like  the  Mle,  with  sea-horses  and  crocodiles,^^ 
as  they  themselves  witnessed  in  crossing  it  {/cofit^ofjuevoi, 
Be  Boa  Tov  IvBov) ;  and  it  produces,  too,  the  same 
flowers.  In  India  the  winter  is  warm,  the  summer 
stifling ;  but  the  heat,  providentially,  is  moderated  by 
frequent  rains.  The  natives  told  him,  tliat  when  the 
season  for  the  rise  of  the  river  is  at  hand,  the  king 
sacrifices  on  its  banks  black  bulls  and  horses  (black 
among  them,  because  of  their  complexion,  being  the 
nobler  colour),  and  after  tlie  sacrifice  throws  into  the 
river  a  gold  measure  like  a  corn  measure, — why,  the 
people  themselves  knew  not;  but  probably,  as  Apol- 
lonius  conjectured,  for  an  abundant  harvest,  or  for  such 
a  moderate^^  rise  of  the  river  as  would  benefit  the  land. 

See  Lassen,  ut  sup.,  II,  637,  who  accounts  for  Ctesias's  exag-gera- 
tion  (his  reasons  do  not  apply  to  Damis ),  and  Wilson's  Notes  on 
the  Indica  of  Ctesias,  who  excuses  it  (p.  13). 

8^  " Indus... in  jugo...Caucasi  montis...effusus...undeviginti  ac- 
cipit  Simn.es... nusquam  latior  quinquaginta  stadiis." — Pliny,  Hist. 
Nat.,  vi,  23. 

^■^  So  Ctesias,  so  Ibn  Batuta  :  "  the  Scinde  is  the  greatest  river 
in  the  world,  and  overflows  during  the  hot  weather  just  as  the 
Nile  does ;  and  at  this  time  they  sow  the  land."  Burnes,  I  think, 
shows  that  it  carries  a  greater  body  of  water  than  the  Ganges. 

33  Strabo,  xv.  §  16. 

31  Eratosthenes  gives  it  the  same  animals  as  the  Nile,  except 
the  sea-horse  ;  Onesicritus  the  sea-horse  also. — Strabo,  u.  s.,  13. 

35  Sir  C.  Napier  attributed  a  fever  which  prostrated  his  army 
and  the  natives  to  an  extraordinary  rise  of  the  Indus. — Quarterly 
Eeview,  October  1858,  p.  499. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  Ii3 

Tlie  Indus  passed,  their  new  guide  led  them  straight 
to  Taxila,^^  where  was  the  palace  of  the  Indian  king. 
The  people  here  wore  cotton,  the  produce  of  the  country, 
and  sandals  made  of  the  fibre  or  bark  of  the  papyrus^^ 
{vTTohrjfiara  /SvjSXov),  and  a  leather  cap  when  it  rained. 
The  better  classes  were  clad  in  byssus,  a  stuff  wdtli 
whicli  Apollonius,  who  affected  a  sombre  colour  in 
his  dress,  was  much  pleased.  This  byssus  grows  on 
a  tree,  like  the  poplar  in  its  stem,  but  with  leaves 
like  the  wiUow ;  it  is  exported  into  Egypt  for  sacred 
uses. 

Taxila^^  was  about  the  size  of  Nineveh,  w^alled  like  a 
Greek  cit}^,  and  was  the  residence  of  a  sovereign  who 
ruled  over  what  of  old  was  the  kingdom  of  Porus.  Just 
outside  the  walls^^  was  a  temple  of  near  a  hundred  feet, 
of  porphyry'^  (\l6ou  KoyxyXcarov) ,  and  in  it  a  shrine, 

^  See  Aristobulus,  Account  of  the  Progress  of  Alexander. — 
Strabo,  u.  s.,  §  17. 

="  AiTian's  Indica  :  *' Their  dress  is  of  cotton,  their  sandals  of 
leather;"  but  Herodotus  gives  the  Egyptian  priests,  virodrjuaTa 
Pv&\ipa—II,  37. 

i8  Wilford  (As.  Ees.,  viii,  349)  speaks  of  Tacshaila  and  its  ruins ; 
Wilson  identifies  Taxila  with  Taksha-sila  of  the  Hindus  between 
the  Indus  and  Hydaspes,  in  the  vicinity  of  Manikyala  (Ar.  Ant., 
196,  Elphinstone,  ed.  1, 130).  Arrian  celebrates  its  size  and  wealth 
the  largest  city  between  the  Indus  and  the  Hydaspes. — V,  8, 
Exp.  Alex. 

'■^^  Ram  Eaz  (Architecture  of  the  Hindus,  p.  2),  of  the  temples  of 
Vishnu  and  Siva,  says  that  the  latter  should  be  without  the  village. 
Hiouen-Thsang  (I,  151),  describes  Taxila,  and  speaks  of  a  stupa 
and  convent  outside  the  walls,  built  by  Asoka. 

■^o  The  tope  of  Manikyala  described  by  Elphinstone  is  a  hundred 
(150)  paces  in  circumference,  and  seventy  feet  high  {Ari.  Ant.,  31). 
Lassen  (II,  514,  com.  1181)  speaks  of  the  influence  of  Greek  art  on 
Indian  architecture;  but  adds,  that  the  Indians  built  with  brick. 
They  may,  however,  have  faced  their  buildings  with  stone;  and 


14  TRAVELS   OF 

small  considering  the  size  of  the  temple  and  its  many 
columns,  but  still  very  beautiful.  Eound  the  shrine 
were  hung  pictures  on  copper  tablets,  representing  the 
feats  of  Alexander  and  Porus.  The  elephants,  horses, 
soldiers,  and  armour,  were  portrayed  in  a  mosaic*^  of 
orichalcum,  silver,  gold,  and  oxydised  copper  {fiekavo 
'XoXkg));  the  spears,  javelins,  and  swords  in  iron;  but 
the  several  metals  were  all  worked  into  one  another 
with  so  nice  a  gradation  of  tints,  that  the  pictures  they 
formed,  in  correctness  of  drawing,  vivacity  of  expression, 
and  truthfulness  of  perspective,*^  reminded  one  of  the 
productions  of  Zeuxis,  Polygnotus  and  Euphranor. 
They  told  too  of  the  noble  character  of  Porus,  for  it 
was  not  till  after  the  death  of  Alexander  that  he  placed 
them  in  the  temple, — and  this,  though  they  represented 
Alexander  as  a  conqueror,  and  himself  as  conquered 
and  wounded,  and  receiving  from  Alexander  the  king- 
dom of  India. 

In  this  temple  they  wait  until  the  king  can  be 
apprised  of  their  arrival.  Apollonius  whiles  away  the 
time  with  a  conversation  upon  painting,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  remarks  that  colour  is  not  necessary  to  a 
picture;  that  an  Indian  drawn  in  chalk  would  be 
known  as  an  Indian  and  black  of  colour,  by  his  some- 
what flat  nose,  his  crisp  hair,  his  large  jaws,  and  wild 

the  X160S  Ko'yx^'^^o-T'n^  ma-y  have  been  of  tliat  porphyry,  or  red 
marble,  used  in  the  tombs  at  Tattah. — Life  of  Sir  C.  Napier,  iv,  38. 

^^  Lassen  (513-14)  states,  on  Sinhalese  authority,  that  the  Hin- 
dus were  skilled  in  mosaics  ;  and  (II,  426-7)  he  describes  a  casket, 
the  figures  on  which  he  supposes  were  of  a  mosaic  of  precious 
stones. 

*^  To  evax^ov  TO  efiirvovy  Kai  to  ea^xop  T€  Kai  e|exor. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  15 

eyes."^^  While  they  are  thus  talking,  a  messenger  and 
interpreter  arrive  from  the  king,  with  a  permit  for  them 
to  enter  the  city,  and  to  stay  in  it  three  days,  beyond 
which  time  no  strangers  are  allowed  in  Taxila. 

They  are  taken  to  the  palace.  They  found  the  city 
divided  by  narrow  streets,  well-arranged,  and  remind- 
ing them  of  Athens.  From  the  streets,  the  houses 
seemed  of  only  one  story,  but  they  all  had  an  under- 
ground floor.**  They  saw  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  and 
in  it  statues  of  Alexander  and  Porus,  the  one  gold,  the 
other  of  bronze  {/uueXavi  'xoKkm)  ;  its  walls  were  of  red 
marble,  but  glittering  with  gold ;  the  image  of  the  god 
was  of  pearls,*^  having,  as  is  usual  with  the  barbarians 
in  sacred  things,  a  symbolical  meaning. 

The  palace  was  distinguished  by  no  extraordinary 
magnificence,  and  was  just  like  the  house  of  any  citizen 
of  the  better  class.  There  were  no  sentinels  or  body- 
guards and  but  few  servants  about,  and  perhaps  three 
or  four  persons  who  were  waiting  to  talk  with  the  king. 
The  same  simplicity  was  observable  in  the  courts,  halls, 
waiting  and  inner  rooms  ;  and  it  pleased  ApoUonius 
more  than  all  the  pomp  of  Babylon.  When  admitted 
to  the  king's  presence,  ApoUonius,  through  the  inter- 
preter, addressed  the  king  as  a  philosopher,  and  com- 

''^  Arrian,  Indica,  vi,  and  compare  with  it  Vishnu  Parana,  note 
4,  p.  100,  where  is  a  description  of  the  barbarous  races  of  India. 

•''*  Lassen,  ut  siijp.,  514.  The  underground  floor,  Elphinstone 
says,  even  the  poor  have  at  Peshawur. — Caubul,  Introduc,  p.  74. 

^^  "On  represente  le  soleil  la  face  rouge... ses  membres  sont 
prononcps,  il  porte  des  pendants  a  ses  oreilles.  Un  collier  de  perles 
lui  descend  du  cou  sur  la  poitrine." — Reinaud,  Mem.  sur  I'lnde, 
p.  121.  "Albyrouny  rapporte  que  de  son  temps  il  y  avoit  un 
temple  erige  au  soleil,  avec  une  statue." — pp.  97,  98,  99. 


16  TRAVELS   OF 

plimented  him  on  his  moderation.  The  king,  Phraotes, 
in  answer,  said  that  he  was  moderate  because  his  w^ants 
were  few,  and  that  as  he  was  wealthy,  he  employed  his 
wealth  in  doing  good  to  his  friends  and  in  subsidizing 
the  barbarians,  his  neighbours,  to  prevent  them  from 
themselves  ravaging,  or  allowing  other  barbarians  to 
ravage  his  territories.  Here  one  of  his  courtiers  offered 
to  crowm  him  with  a  jewelled  mitre,  but  he  refused  it, 
as  well  because  all  pomp  was  hateful  to  him,  as  because 
of  ApoUonius's  presence. 

Apollonius  inquired  into  his  mode  of  life.  The  king 
told  him  that  he  drank  but  little  wine,  as  much  as  he 
usually  poured  out  in  libation  to  the  sun ;  that  he 
hunted  for  exercise/^  and  gave  away  wdiat  he  killed ; 
that,  for  himself,  he  lived  on  vegetables  and  herbs,  and 
the  head  and  fruit  of  the  palm,  and  other  fruits^^  which 
he  cultivated  with  his  own  hands.  With  this  account 
of  his  kingly  tastes  and  occupations  Apollonius  was  de- 
lighted, and  he  frequently  looked  at  Damis.  They  now 
talked  together  a  long  time  about  the  road  to  the  Brah- 
mans ;  and  when  they  had  done,  the  king  ordered  the 
Babylonian  guide  to  be  treated  with  the  hospitality 
wont  to  be  shown  to  travellers  from  Babylon,  and  the 
satrap  guide  to  be  sent  back  home  with  the  usual  travel- 
ling allowance.     Then  taking  Apollonius  by  the  hand, 

^^  V.  Strabo,  of  the  Mysicani,  ih.,  34.'  "But  drinking,  dice, 
women  and  hunting,  let  the  king  consider  as  the  four  most  per- 
nicious vices." — Menu,  vii,  50. 

47  Arrian,  Indica,  xi,  c.  §  8.  So  Nacir  Eddin  of  Delhi,  "  copiat 
des  exemplaires  du  livre  illustre,  les  vendait,  et  se  nourrissait  avec 
le  prix  qu'il  en  retirait." — Ibn  Batoutah,  169,  iii,  tr.  d.  1.  Soc. 
Asiatique. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  17 

and  ordering  the  interpreter  to  leave  them,  Phraotes 
asked  him,  in  Greek,  to  receive  him,  the  king,  as  a  table 
companion.  ApoUonius,  surprised,  inquired  why  he 
had  not  spoken  Greek  from  the  first.  "  Because",  an- 
swered the  king,  "  I  would  not  seem  bold,  or  to  forget 
til  at  I  am,  after  all,  only  a  barbarian ;  but  your  kind- 
ness, and  the  pleasure  you  take  in  my  conversation, 
have  got  the  better  of  me,  and  I  can  no  longer  conceal 
myself  from  you.  And  how  I  became  thus  acquainted 
with  Greek  I  will  presently  show  you  at  large."  "  But 
why,"  again  asked  ApoUonius,  "  instead  of  inviting  me, 
did  you  beg  me  to  invite  you  to  dinner  ?"  "  Because," 
said  the  king,  "  I  look  on  you  as  the  better  man ;  for 
wisdom  is  above  royalty  {to  ^ap  ^aaCKiKcoTepov  o-o<j)ta 
€X€i')'^^  So  saying,  he  led  him  to  the  place  where  he 
was  accustomed  to  bathe.^^  This  was  a  garden,^^  about 
a  stadium  long,  with  a  swimming  bath  of  cold  running 
water  in  the  middle  of  it,  and  on  each  side  an  exercising 
ground.  Here  he  practised  the  discus  and  the  javelin, 
Greek  fashion,^^  and  then,  when  tired,  jumped  into  the 
water,  and  exercised  himself  with  swimming.     Atter 

*^  The  old  Stoic  maxim :  "  Solus  sapiens  rex."  Olearius  in 
Philost. 

'^^  Hiouen  Thsang,  I,  70,  71,  describes  the  nice  cleanliness  of  the 
Indians,  but  confines  the  washing  before  meat  to  the  hands. 

w  Confer  Elian's  description  of  the  garden  of  the  Indian  kings, 
xiii,  c.  18,  de  Nat.  Animal. 

"  Menu  of  the  kingly  duties  :  "  Having  consulted  with  his  mi- 
nisters,...having  used  exercise  becoming  a  warrior,  and  having 
bathed,  let  the  king  enter  at  noon  his  private  apartments  for  the 
purpose  of  taking  food"  (vii,  216).  But  Strabo  (xv,  i,  51)  says, 
the  Indians  use  friction  rather  than  gymnastic  exercises. 

C 


18  TRAVELS   OF 

the  bath  they  went  to  dinner,  crowned  with  garlands,^^ 
as  is  usual  with  the  Indians  when  they  feast  in  the 
king's  palace. 

Of  the  dinner  Damis  has  given  a  detailed  account. 
The  king,  and  about  five  of  his  family  with  him,  lay  on 
a  low  couch ;  the  other  guests  sat  on  stools.  The  table 
was  like  an  altar,  about  as  high  as  a  man's  knee;  it  was 
in  the  middle  of  the  room,  round,  and  as  large  as  would 
be  a  circle  formed  by  thirty  people  with  joined  hands 
standing  up  to  dance.  It  was  strewed  over  with  laurel, 
and  a  sort  of  myrtle  from  which  the  Indians  prepare 
their  unguents,  and  was  set  out  with  fish  and  birds,  the 
carcases  of  lions  and  goats  and  sows,  and  with  tiger 
loins^^ — the  only  part  of  the  tiger  they  eat,  and  this  be- 
cause they  suppose  that  at  its  birth  it  raises  its  fore- 
paws  to  the  rising  sun.  Each  guest,  as  he  wanted  any- 
thing, got  up  and  went  to  the  table ;  and  taking  a  bit  of 
this,  cutting  off  a  slice  of  that,  he  returned  to  his  seat 
and  ate  his  fill,  always  eating  bread  with  his  meat. 
When  they  had  had  enough,  gold  and  silver  bowls,  each 
one  large  enough  for  ten  guests,  were  brought  in,  and 
from  these  they  drank,  stooping  down  like  cattle.  In 
the  meanwhile,  they  were  amused  by  various  feats  which 
required  no  little  skill  and  courage :  a  javelin  was 
thrown  upward,  and  at  the  same  time  a  boy  leaped  at 

^2  "  Le  roi  et  ses  ministres  ornent  lenrs  tetes  de  guirlandes  do 
fleurs." — Hiouen  Thsang,  p.  70,  I,  v. 

^  Strabo,  quoting  Nearchus,  better  describes  the  Indians,  at 
least  he  describes  them  as  we  at  this  day  find  them  :  /urj5f  '^ap 
voaovs  iivai  iroWas  Tiia  rrjv  Xirorrjra  ttjs  Siamjs  Kai  rrjp  aoiuiav  (xv,  1, 
45 ),  their  food  principally  opv^av  po^rjTTjj/,  rice  curry  or  porridge  ? 
— §  53.     See  however,  n.  17,  p.  6,  sux>ra.i 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  19 

it  and  tumbled  head  over  heels  while  in  the  air,  but  in 
such  a  way  that  lie  passed  over  the  javelin  as  it  fell, 
and  with  the  certainty  of  being  wounded  if  he  did  not 
properly  time  his  somersault ;  indeed  the  weapon  was 
carried  round,  and  the  guests  tested  its  sharpness.  One 
man  also  was  so  good  a  marksman,  that  he  set  up  his 
own  son  against  a  board,  and  then  threw  his  darts,  so 
aiming  tliem  that,  fixed  in  the  board,  they  traced  out 
his  son's  outline.^* 

Damis  and  tlie  others  were  much  amused  with  these 
entertainments ;  but  ApoUonius,  who  was  at  .the  king's 
table,  paid  little  attention  to  them ;  and,  turning  to  the 
king,  asked  him,  how  he  came  to  know  Greek,  and 
where  he  acquired  his  philosophy.  The  king,  smiling, 
answered,  "  In  old  times  when  a  ship  put  into  port,  the 
people  used  to  ask  its  crew  if  they  were  pirates,^^  piracy 
was  then  so  common.     But  now,  though  philosophy  is 

^  A  Cliinese  juggler  lately  performed  the  same  feat  in  London, 
and  a  very  small  feat  compared  with  that  of  Baresanes,  an  Arme- 
nian, which  Julius  Africanus  himself  witnessed.  He  shot  his  arrows 
with  such  precision  as  with  them  to  sketch  out  on  a  shield  the 
portrait  of  the  man  who  had  it.  See  the  passage  from  the  Keo-rot, 
quoted  by  Hilgenfeld  (Bardesanes,  p.  14,  n.  6).  This  archer,  Bar- 
desanes,  Hilgenfeld  is  inclined  to  think  is  the  same  man  as  the 
heresiarch  Bardesanes;  for  they  were  cotemporaries,  and  both 
were  connected  with  the  court  of  the  Abgari.  But  one  was  a 
learned  man  and  a  philosopher,  the  other  skilled  in  archery — and 
so  skilled,  that  whatever  his  natural  aptitude,  he  never  could  have 
attained  to  his  wonderful  proficiency  but  by  life-long  painstaking 
practice,  a  devotion  to  his  art  only  to  be  met  with  in  him  who 
has  to  live  by  it,  and  quite  incompatible  with  the  cultivated  tastes 
and  scholarship  of  his  namesake.  It  would  require  some  very 
strong  evidence  to  induce  me  to  identify  them  as  one  and  the 
same. 

*5  Allusion  to  Thucydides,  I. 


20  TRAVELS   OF 

God's  most  precious  gift  to  man,  the  first  question  you 
Greeks  put  to  a  stranger,  even  of  the  lowest  rabble,  is 
'Are  you  a  philosopher  ?'  And  in  very  truth  with  you 
Greeks,  I  speak  not  of  you  Apollonius,  philosophy  is 
much  the  same  as  piracy,  for  to  the  many  who  profess 
it,  it  is  like  an  ill-fitting  garment  which  they  have 
stolen,  and  in  which  they  strut  about  awkwardly,  trail- 
ing it  on  the  ground.  And  like  thieves,  on  whom  the 
fear  of  justice  presses,  they  hurry  to  enjoy  the  present 
hour,  and  give  themselves  up  to  gluttony,  debauchery, 
and  effeminacy ;  and  no  wonder,  for  while  your  laws 
punish  coiners  of  bad  money,  they  take  no  cognizance 
of  the  authors  and  utterers  of  a  false  philosophy.  Here, 
on  the  other  hand,  philosophy  is  a  high  honour,  and  be- 
fore we  allow  any  one  to  study  it,  we  first  send  him  to 
the  home  of  the  Brahmans,  who  inquire  into  his  charac- 
ter and  parentage.  He  must  shew  that  his  progenitors, 
for  three  generations,  have  been  without  stain  or  re- 
proach, and  that  he  himself  is  of  pure  morals  and  of  a 
retentive  intellect.  The  character  of  his  progenitors," 
the  king  went  on  to  say,  "  if  of  living  men,  was  ascer- 
tained from  witnesses  ;  and  if  of  dead,  was  known  from 
the  public  records.^^  For  when  an  Indian  died,  a  legally 
appointed  officer  repaired  to  his  house,  and  inquired 
into,  and  set  down  in  writing,  his  mode  of  life,  and 
exactly,  under  the  penalty  of  being  declared  incapable 

^  Strabo  of  the  Indian  city  sediles  says  a  part  took  note  of  the 
birth  and  deaths,  that  the  birth  or  death  of  good  or  bad  men  may 
be  known  :  jjltj  a(pav€is  eieu  al  Kpeiroves  Kat  x^^^P^^^  yovai  Kai  Qavaroi 
(XV,  1,  51) ;  from  Megasthenes,  Frag.  Hist.,  II,  p.  431,  §  37,  and 
consult  Bardesanes'  account  of  the  2a^aj/atot  in  1.  iv,  c.  17,  of  Por- 
phyry de  Abstinentia. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  21 

of  holding  any  public  office.  As  to  the  youth  himself, 
they  judged  him  worthy  or  otherwise  from  his  eyes,  eye- 
brows, and  cheeks,  which  as  in  a  mirror  reflect  the  mind 
and  disposition." 

The  king  then  told  how  his  father,  the  son  of  a  king, 
had  been  left  very  young  an  orphan ;  and  how  during 
his  minority  two  of  his  relatives  according  to  Indian 
custom  acted  as  regents,  but  with  so  little  regard  to  law, 
that  some  nobles  conspired  against  them,  and  slew  them 
as  they  were  sacrificing  to  the  Indus,  and  seized  upon 
the  government ; — how  on  this  his  father,  then  sixteen 
years  of  age,  fled  to  the  king  beyond  the  Hydaspes,  a 
greater  king  than  himself,  who  received  him  kindly,  and 
oftered  either  to  adopt  him,  or  to  replace  him  on  his 
throne ;  and  how,  declining  this  offer,  he  requested  to 
be  sent  to  the  Brahmans ;  and  how  the  Brahmans  edu- 
cated him ;  and  how  in  time  he  married  the  daughter 
of  the  Hydaspian  king,  and  received  with  her  seven 
villages  as  pin-money  (ek  ^cov7]v),  and  had  issue  one 
son, — himself,  Phraotes.  Phraotes  told  of  himself,  that 
he  was  brought  up  by  his  father  in  the  Greek  fashion 
till  the  age  of  twelve;  that  he  was  then  sent  to  the 
Brahmans,  and  treated  by  them  as  a  son,  for  "they 
especially  love",  he  observed,  "those  who  know  and 
speak  Greek,  as  akin  to  them  in  mind  and  disposition"; 
that  his  parents  died ;  and  that  in  his  nineteenth  year, 
just  as,  by  the  advice  of  the  Brahmans,  he  was  begin- 
ning to  take  into  his  own  hands  the  management  of  his 
estates,  he  was  deprived  of  them  by  the  king,  his  uncle, 
and  was  then  supported  with  four  servants  by  willing 
contributions  from  his  mother's  freedmen  {aireXevdepoov). 


22  TRAVELS   OF 

As  however  he  is  one  day  reading  the  Heraclidse,  he 
hears  from  a  friend  of  his  father's,  that  if  he  will  return 
home,  he  may  recover  his  family  kingdom,  but  he  must 
he  quick.  The  tragedy  he  was  reading  he  accepts  as 
an  omen ;  and  he  goes  on  to  say : — "  When  I  crossed 
the  Hydraotis,  I  heard  that,  of  the  usurpers,  one  was 
already  dead,  and  the  other  besieged  in  this  very  palace ; 
so  I  Imrried  on,  proclaiming  to  the  villages  I  passed 
through  who  I  was,  and  what  were  my  rights :  and  the 
people  received  me  gladly;  and  declaring  I  was  the  very 
picture  of  my  father  and  grandfather,  they  accompanied 
me,  many  of  them  armed  with  swords  and  bows,  and 
our  numbers  increased  daily;  and  when  we  reached 
this  city,  the  inhabitants,  with  torches  lit  at  the  altar 
of  the  Sun,  and  singing  the  praises  of  my  father  and 
grandfather,  came  out  and  welcomed  me,  and  brought 
me  hither.  But  the  drone  within  they  walled  up,^'' 
though  I  begged  them  not  to  kill  him  in  that  way. 

Apollonius  then  enquired  whether  the  Sophoi  of 
Alexander  and  these  Brahmans  were  the  same  people. 
The  king  told  him  they  were  not;  that  Alexander's 
Sophoi  were  the  Oxydracse,^^  a  free  and  warlike  race, 
but  rather  dabblers  in  philosophy  than  philosophers  f^ 
that  the  Brahman  country  lay  between  the  Hyphasis 
and  the  Ganges ;  and  that  Alexander  never  invaded 
it — not  through  fear,  but  dissuaded  by  the  appearance 

57  I  prefer  Olearius's  reading,  rov  Se  eiaao  xvl^V^o-  ""ept,  to  reixos 
fip^uv,  better  suited  to  tlie  xv^PW"" 

53  Strabo,  xv,  I,  33,  connects  them  with  the  Malli.  Bumes 
identifies  them  with  the  people  of  Ooch,  the  Malli  with  those  of 
Mooltan. — Ut  sup.,  I,  p.  99. 

59  ^o<piap  5e  fierax^ipiaaoBai,  ovSey  xP't'^'^o'^  etSoras. — Philost.,  II, 
C.  33. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  23 

of  the  sacrificial  victims.  "And  though,"  said  Phraotes, 
he  might  it  is  true  have  crossed  the  Hyphasis  and 
occupied  the  neighbouring  lands,  yet  the  stronghold  of 
the  Brahmans  he  never  could  have  taken — no,  not 
though  every  man  in  his  army  had  been  an  Ajax  or  an 
Achilles.^^  For  these  sacred  and  god-loved  men  would 
have  driven  him  back — not  with  human  weapons,  but 
with  thunders  and  lightnings,  and  tempests,  as  they 
had  routed  the  Egyptian  Hercules  and  Bacchus,  who 
thought  with  united  arms  to  have  stormed  their  fort ; 
and  so  routed  them,  that  Hercules  it  is  said  threw  away 
his  golden  shield,  which,  because  of  its  owner's  renown 
and  its  own  embossments,^^  they  then  set  up  as  an 
offering  in  their  temple." 

While  they  were  thus  conversing,  music  and  a  song 
were  introduced,  on  which  ApoUonius  enquired  what  the 
festal  procession  meant.  The  king  explained  to  him  that 
it  was  usual  with  the  Indians  to  sing  to  the  king  before 
he  retired  to  rest,  songs  of  good  counsel,  wishing  him 
good  dreams,  and  that  he  may  rise  in  the  morning  a 
good  man  and  a  wise  counsellor  for  his  people^^.    And 

«>  So  the  pseudo-Callistlienes  notices  the  OxydracaB  as  speaking 
Greek,  p.  88,  and  as  visited  but  not  conc[uered  by  Alexander,  p. 
99,  ed.  Muller. 

61  These  embossments  represented,  the  king  goes  on  to  say, 
Hercules  setting  up  his  pillars  at  Gades,  and  driving  back  the 
ocean ;  proof,  he  asserts,  that  it  was  the  Egyptian,  and  not  the 
Theban  Hercules,  who  was  at  Gades. 

«2  Menu,  among  the  vices  the  king  is  to  shun,  names  dancing 
and  instrumental  music  (vii,  47),  but  afterwards  advises  that,  "  in 
the  inmost  recesses  of  his  mansion,  having  been  recreated  by 
musical  strains,  he  should  take  rest  early." — vii,  224-5 ;  see,  how- 
ever. As.  Ees.,  ix,  p.  76. 


24  TEAVELS   OF 

SO  talking,  they  went  to  bed.  The  next  morning,  Apol- 
lonius  discourses  upon  sleep  and  dreams,  and  the  king 
displays  his  knowledge  of  Greek  legends.  They  then 
separate — the  king  to  transact  the  business  of  his 
kingdom  and  to  decide  some  law-suits — Apollonius  to 
offer  his  prayers  to  the  Sun.  When  they  again  meet, 
the  king  tells  Apollonius  that  the  state  of  the  victims 
had  not  permitted  the  Court  to  sit  on  that  day,  and  he 
lays  before  him  a  case  in  dispute — one  of  treasure- 
trove,  and  in  land  which  has  just  changed  hands,  the 
buyer  and  seller  both  claiming  the  treasure.  The  king 
is  in  much  perplexity,  and  states  the  pleas  on  both 
sides ;  and  the  suit  might  have  been  drawn  out  to  the 
same  length,  and  become  as  celebrated  as  that  of  the 
ass  and  the  shadow  at  Abdera,  had  not  Apollonius 
come  to  his  assistance.  He  inquires  into  the  life  and 
character  of  the  litigants ;  finds  that  the  seller  is  a  bad, 
and  the  purchaser  a  good  man ;  and  to  the  last  there- 
fore awards  the  treasure. 

When  the  three  days  of  their  sojourn  were  expired, 
and  the  king  learns  that  their  camels  from  Babylon  are 
worn  out,  he  orders  that  of  his  white  camels^  on  the 
Indus,  four  shall  be  sent  to  Bardanes,  and  four  others 
given  to  Apollonius,  together  with  provisions  and  a 
guide  to  the  Brahmans.  He  offers  him  besides  gold 
and  jewels  and  linen  garments ;  the  gold  Apollonius 
refuses,  but  he  accepts  the  linen  garments  because  they 
are  like  the  old  genuine  Attic  cloak,  and  he  picks  out 
besides  one  jewel,  because  of  its  mystic  and  divine 

^  Elphinstone   {ut  supra,   I,  40)  speaks  of  white    camels  as 
rare. 


APOLLONIUS    OF   TYANA.  25 

properties.  He  receives  also  a  letter  for  larchas,^  to 
this  effect : — "  The  King  Phraotes  to  the  Master  larchas 
and  the  wise  men  with  him,  greeting:  Apollonius,  a 
very  wise  man,  thinks  you  wiser  than  himself,  and  has 
travelled  hither  to  learn  your  doctrine.  Send  him  back 
knowing  all  you  know.  Your  lessons  will  not  be  lost, 
for  he  speaks  better,  and  has  a  better  memory  than  any 
man  I  ever  knew.  Shew  him.  Father  larchas,  the 
throne  on  which  I  sat  when  you  gave  me  the  kingdom. 
His  followers  are  worthy  of  all  praise,  if  only  for 
submitting  to  such  a  man.     Farewell." 

They  leave  Taxila,  and  after  two  days'  journey, 
reach  the  plain,  where  Porus  is  said  to  have  en- 
countered Alexander.  There  they  saw  a  triumphal 
arch  serving  as  a  pediment  to  a  statue  of  Alexander  in 
a  four-horse  chariot,  as  he  appeared  on  the  Issus.  A 
little  farther  on,  they  came  upon  two  other  arches,  on 
one  of  which  was  Alexander,  on  the  other  Porus — the 
one  saluting,  the  other  in  an  attitude  of  submission. 

Having  passed  the  Hydraotis,^^  they  pursued  their 
way  through  several  countries^^  to  the  Hyphasis. 
Thirty  stadia  from  the  river,  they  saw :  the  altars  Alex- 
ander had  built  there  "  To  Father  Ammon  and  Brother 
Hercules,  to  the  Providence  Minerva  and  Olympian 
Jove,  and  to  the  Samo-Thracian  Cabiri  and  the  Indian 
Sun  and  Brother  Apollo :"  and  also  a  bronze  pillar  with 
this  inscription : — "  Here  Alexander  halted."     And  this 

^  Probably,  suggests  Wilford,  a  corruption  from  Eac'hyas.— 
As.  Res.,  ix,  41. 

^  Hydraotis,  in  Strabo  Hyarotis,  Sanskrit  Iravati;  Hyphasis, 
Vipasa.  —Vishnu  Purana,  p.  181. 

^  Strabo  gives  the  number  as  nine. — xv,  I,  3,  33. 


26  TRAVELS   OF 

pillar  Philostratus  conjectures  was  raised  by  the  Indians 
in  joy  at  the  return  homeward  of  Alexander. 

In  reference  to  the  Hyphasis  and  its  marvels,  we  are 
told  that  it  is  navigable  at  its  very  source,  in  a  plain ; 
but  that  lower  down  alternate  ridges  of  rock  impede 
its  course,  and  cause  eddies  which  render  navigation 
impossible.  It  is  about  as  broad  as  the  Ister,  the 
largest  of  our  European  rivers,  and  the  same  sort  of 
trees  grow  upon  its  banks.  From  these  trees  the  people 
obtain  an  unguent  with  which  if  the  marriage  guests 
neglect  to  anoint  the  bride  and  bridegroom,  the  marriage 
rite  is  thought  informal  and  not  pleasing  to  Venus.  To 
Venus  indeed  its  groves  are  dedicated,  as  also  a  fish  found 
here  only,  the  peacock,  so  called  from  its  cserulean  crest, 
spotted  scales,  and  golden  tail,  which  it  can  open  out  at, 
its  pleasure.  In  this  river  is  also  found  a  sort  of  white, 
worm,  the  property  of  the  king,  which  is  melted  into 
an  oil  so  inflammable,  that  nothing  but  glass  will  hold 
it.  This  oil  is  used  in  sieges,  and  when  thrown  on  the 
battlements,  it  burns  so  fiercely,  that  its  fire,  so  far  as 
yet  known,  is  inextinguishable.^^ 

In  the  marshes  they  catch  wild  asses  with  a  horn  on 
their  foreheads,^^  with  which  they  fight,  bull-fashion. 
From  this  horn  is  made  a  cup  of  such  virtue  that  if 


67  This  worm  is  mentioned  and  described  by  Ctesias,  but  he 
places  it  in  the  Indus.— Frag.  Ctes.,  ed.  Didot,  27,  p.  85. 

®  This  ass  and  its  horn,  with  some  slight  difference,  are  also  in 
Gtesias  {ih.,  p.  25).  Wilson  sees  in  this  horned  ass  two  animals 
"  rolled  into  one,"  the  gorkhar,  or  wild  horse,  found  north  of  the 
Hindu -Koh,  and  the  rhinoceros,  whose  horn  has  to  this  day  in  the 
East  a  high  reputation  as  an  antidote. — Notes  on  Ctesias,  63 
and  49. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  27 

any  one  drinks  out  of  it,  he  need  for  that  day  fear  no 
sickness,  nor  wounds,  nor  fire,  nor  poison.  It  belongs 
to  the  king,  who  also  reserves  to  himself  the  right  of 
hunting  the  ass.  Apollonius  saw  the  animal,  and 
admired  it ;  but  when  Damis  asked  him  if  he  could 
believe  all  that  was  said  of  the  virtue  of  the  cup,  he 
answered,  "  Yes,  when  I  see  any  Indian  king  immortal." 
Here  they  met  with  a  woman  black  to  her  breasts, 
white  from  her  breasts  downwards.  She  was  sacred  to 
the  Indian  Venus,  and  to  this  goddess  piebald  women 
are  sacred  from  their  birth,  as  to  Apis  among  the 
Egjrptians.  Here  they  crossed  that  spur  of  the  Cau- 
casus which  stretches  down  towards  the  Eed  Sea ;  it 
was  full  of  all  sorts  of  aromatic  plants.  The  headlands 
produced  cinnamon,^^  a  shrub  very  like  a  young  vine 
(yeoL^  K\i]/jLa<Tt),  and  so  grateful  to  goats,  that  if  you 
hold  it  in  your  hands  they  will  follow  you  and  whine 
after  you  like  dogs.  On  the  cliffs  grow  the  tall,  and  all 
other  sorts  of,  frankincense,  and  pepper-trees.  The 
pepper-tree  resembles  the  dyvo'^  both  in  its  leaves  and 
the  clustered  form  of  its  fruit.  It  grows  on  precipices 
inaccessible  to  man,  but  frequented  by  apes,  which,  as 
they  gather  for  them  the  pepper-fruit,  the  Indians  make 
much  of  and  protect  with  arms  and  dogs  against  the 
lion ;  for  the  lion  will  lie  in  wait  for  the  ape,  and  eat 
its  flesh  as  medicine  when  he  is  sick,  and  as  food  when 
he  is  old  and  no  longer  able  to  hunt  the  stag  and  wild 
boar.  The  pepper  harvest  is  gathered  in  this  way : — 
Directly  under  the  cliffs  where  the  peppers  grow,  the 

6»  Strabo,  xv,  I,  22,  but  in  the  south  of  India.    I  believe  it  is 
indigenous  to  Ceylon,  and  is  not  found  in  India  at  all. 


SB  TRAVELS   OF 

people  dig  small  trenches  into  which  they  throw  as 
something  worthless  the  fruit  of  the  neighbouring 
trees.70  The  monkeys  from  the  heights  watch  them, 
and  as  soon  as  it  is  night,  begin  like  them  to  tear  the 
clustered  fruits  from  the  pepper,  and  like  them  to  fling 
it  into  the  trenches.  In  the  morning  the  people  come 
back  and  carry  off  the  pepper,  which  they  thus  obtain 
without  any  labour. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  mountain  was  a  large  plain 
— the  largest  in  India,  being  fifteen  days'  journey  to  the 
Ganges,  and  eighteeen  days'  to  the  Eed  Sea.  It  was 
intersected  with  dykes  running  in  different  directions, 
and  communicating  with  the  Ganges,  and  serving  the 
double  purpose  of  landmarks  and  canals  for  irrigation. 
The  land  here  is  the  best  in  India,  black  and  very 
productive ;  its  wheat  stalks  are  like  reeds,'^^  and  its 
beans  three  times  as  large  as  the  Egyptian ;  its  sesame 
and  millet   are   also  extraordinarily  fine.     Here,  too, 

'0  Strabo  {ih.,  §  29)  describes  a  similar  trick,  by  means  of  which 
the  people  catch  the  monkeys ;  and  Lane  observes,  "  I  have  my- 
self seen  paintings  in  ancient  Egyptian  tombs  representing  the 
mode  of  gathering  fruit  by  means  of  tame  monkeys"  (Arab.  Nights, 
III,  p.  106,  and  Wilkinson,  An.  Egypt.,  II,  150).  But  without  gain- 
saying the  fact  that  monkeys  may  be  taught  to  pick  fruit,  all  I 
have  seen  of  them  confirms  Waterton's  observation,  that  the 
monkey  never  throws,  only  lets  fall. 

■^1  Elphinstone,  describing  this  bank  of  the  Hyphasis,  tells  only 
of  sand-hills,  and  hard  clay,  and  tufts  of  grass,  and  little  bushes 
of  rue.  Of  the  right  bank,  however,  he  says :  "  There  were 
so  many  large  and  deep  watercourses  throughout  the  journey, 
that,  judging  from  them  alone,  the  country  must  be  highly  culti- 
vated."—Introd.  Burnes,  too,  observes  of  Balkh  :  "The  crops 
are  good,  and  the  wheat  stalks  grow  as  high  as  in  England,  and 
do  not  present  the  stunted  stubble  of  India." — Ut  sup,,  II,  206. 


APOLLOXIUS  OF  TYANA.  29 

grow  those  nuts,  which  for  their  rarity  and  size  are,  as 
a  sort  of  curiosity,  often  found  in  Greek  temples.  The 
grapes  of  the  country  however  are  small,  like  the 
Lydian  and  Maeonian,  and  with  an  agreeable  bouquet 

"when  gathered  (ra?  8e  a/^TreXoi;? Trorcfiov^  re  Kat 

avOoafiia^  ofiov  tm  airoTpvyav.)  A  tree  is  also  found 
here  like  the  laurel  but  with  a  fruit  like  a  large  pome- 
granate, within  the  husk  of  which  is  an  apple  of  the 
colour  of  a  fine  hyacinth,  and  the  very  best  flavoured 
fruit  they  ever  ateJ^ 

As  they  came  down  the  mountain,  they  witnessed  a 
dragon-hunt.  India,  its  marshes,  plains,  and  mountains, 
are  full  of  dragons."^^  Of  these  they  tell  us  that  the 
marsh-dragon  is  thirty  cubits  long,  sluggish,  and  with- 
out a  crest ;  the  male  very  like  the  female  (aXX!  eivai 
rai^  BpaKaivaL<;  ofioioc).  Its  back  is  black,  and  it  has 
fewer  scales  than  the  other  kinds.  Homer,  when  he 
speaks  of  the  dragon  at  the  fount  in  Aulis  as  of  blood- 
red  back,  describes  the  marsh-dragon  better  than  the 
other  poets,  who  make  the  Nemsean  dragon  crested ;  for 
crested  you  wiU  hardly  find  any  marsh-dragon. 

The  plain  and  hill-dragons  are  superior  to,  and  larger 
than,  the  marsh  kind.     They  move  along  more  swiftly 


72  Can  this  be  the  purple  mangosteen,  such  as  it  might  be  de- 
scribed by  those  who  only  knew  of  it  from  hearsay  ? 

"  Almost  all  that  is  here  said  of  serpents  will  be  found  in  Pliny 
(viii,  11, 13) ;  their  size,  though  scarcely  so  large  as  those  of  Philo- 
Btratus,  is  noticed  by  Onesicritus  and  Nearchus  (Frag.  Hist.  Alex., 
pp.  50  and  105,  Didot) ;  their  beards  by  -^lian  (xi,  c.  2G) ;  the 
beard  and  the  stone  in  their  heads,  with  some  difference  (the 
stones  are  avToy\v<poi),  by  Tzetzes  from  Poseidippus.— Chil.,  vii, 
653,  669  J  the  magic  power  of  their  eyes,  by  Lucan  (vii,  657). 


30  TRAVELS   OF 

than  the  swiftest  rivers,  and  nothing  can  escape  them. 
They  are  crested ;  and  though  in  the  young  the  crest  is 
small  [fjuirpiov),  when  they  are  full-grown,  it  rises  to  a 
great  height.  They  are  of  a  fiery  colour,  with  serrated 
backs,  and  bearded  ;  their  necks  are  erect,  and  their 
scales  shine  like  silver.  The  pupils  of  their  eyes  are  a 
fiery  stone  of  wonderful  and  mystic  properties.  They 
are  hunted  for  the  sake  of  their  eyes,  skin,  and  teeth. 
A  dragon  of  this  kind  will  sometimes  attack  an  ele- 
phant f*  both  then  perish,  and  are  a  "find"  for  the 
huntsmen.  They  resemble  the  largest  fish,  but  are 
more  lithe  and  active ;  their  teeth  are  hard  as  those  of 
the  whale. 

The  mountain  dragons  are  larger  than  those  of  the 
plain,  and  with  a  fiercer  look ;  their  scales  are  golden, 
their  beard  too,  which  hangs  in  clusters ;  they  glide  on 
the  earth  with  a  sound  as  of  brass ;  their  fiery  crests 
throw  out  a  light  brighter  than  that  of  a  torch.  They 
overpower  the  elephant,  but  become  themselves  the 
prey  of  the  Indian.  They  are  killed  in  this  fashion. 
The  Indians  spread  out  before  the  serpent's  hiding- 
place  a  scarlet  carpet  enwrought  with  golden  characters, 
upon  which,  should  the  dragon  chance  to  rest  his  head, 
he  is  charmed  to  sleep.  They  then,  with  incantations,^^ 
call  him  out  of  his  hole ;  and  if  everything  goes  well — 
for  often  he  gets  the  better  of  them  and  their  "  gramary" 


'*  This  is  said  of  the  Ceylon  elephants  and  serpents  in  the  Chili- 
ads of  Tzetzes  from  Poseidippus,  vii,  212. 

75  The  snake  charmer  still  exists  in  India.  Bochart  (Hierozo., 
cvi.  III,  II,  V.)  gives  all  the  passages  in  ancient  authors  bearing  on 
the  subject. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  31 

— as  soon  as  with  outstretched  neck  he  is  lulled  in 
magic  sleep,  they  rush  on  him  with  hatchets  and  cut 
off  his  head,  and  extract  from  it  bright-coloured  stones/^ 
flashing  with  every  hue,  and  of  powers  wonderful  as 
those  of  Gyges'  ring.  These  dragons  are  also  found  in 
the  mountains  bordering  on  the  Eed  Sea.  They  are  said 
to  live  to  an  incredible  age,  but  of  this  nothing  sure 
is  known. 

At  the  foot  of  the  mountain  was  situated  Paraka,  a 
very  large  city.  Its  inhabitants  are,  from  their  youthj 
trained  to  hunt  the  dragon,  and  it  is  full  of  their  trophies 
— ^the  heads  of  dragons.  They  eat  the  hearts  and  livers, 
and  in  this  way,  as  was  proved  by  Apollonius  him  self, ^^ 
they  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  language  and  thoughts 
of  animals. 

Proceeding  onwards,  our  travellers  hear  the  sound  of 
a  shepherd's  pipe,"^^  and  presently  see  a  herd  of  white 
stags  grazing.  The  Indians  keep  them  for  their  milk,^^ 
which  is  very  nourishing. 

Thence,  after  a  four  days'  journey  through  a  fertile 

''s  Moor's  Oriental  Fragments,  pp.  80-5,  gives  an  account  of  the 
snake  stones,  "of  a  dark  hue,  though  not  always  of  the  same  colour, 
and  about  the  size  of  a  tamarind  stone",  and  describes  the  modes 
by  which  the  snake  charmer  compels  the  snake  to  disgorge  them. 
The  pretensions  of  the  snake  charmer  are  pretty  well  disposed  of 
by  Professor  Owen  in  a  paper  on  snake  charming  in  Blackwood, 
Feb.  1872. 

77  At  Ephesus  (1.  iv,  c.  3),  where  he  displayed  his  knowledge  of 
the  language  of  spaiTows. 

■^  Strabo  {ut  sup.,  c.  22)  says,  they  have  no  musical  instruments 
besides  cymbals,  drums,  and  KpdraKoi  (rattles,  castanets  ?). 

79  «« The  milk  of  any  forest  beast,  except  the  buffalo,  must  be 
carefully  shunned." — Menu,  v.  11. 


32  TRAVELS   OF 

and  well-cultivated  country,  they  approached  the  strong- 
hold of  the  Sophoi ;  and  now  their  guide  ordered  his 
camel  to  kneel,  and  jumped  down  sweating  with  fear. 
Then  Apollonius  knew  where  they  were,  and  laughed 
at  the  Indian  and  bade  him  again  mount  his  camel. 
The  fact  is,  the  near  neighbourhood  of  the  Sophoi 
frightened  him ;  and,  indeed,  the  people  fear  them  more 
than  the  king  ;  for  the  king  consults  them  as  he  would 
an  oracle,  and  does  nothing  without  their  advice  and 
concurrence.^^ 

When  they  had  reached  a  village,  not  the  eighth  of  a 
mile  from  the  hill  of  the  Sophoi,  and  were  preparing  to 
put  up  there,  they  perceived  a  young  man  running  to- 
wards them.  He  was  the  very  blackest  Indian  they 
had  yet  seen,  with  a  bright  spot,  crescent-shaped,  be- 
tween his  brows,  much  such  a  mark  as  Menon,  the 
Ethiopian  foster-child  of  the  sophist  Herod,  had  in  his 
youth.  He  bore  a  golden  anchor,  which,  as  symbolical 
of  holding  fast,  the  Indians  have  made  their  caduceus. 

When  the  messenger  coming  up  addressed  Apollonius 
in  Greek,  as  the  villagers  also  spoke  Greek,  his  com- 
panions were  not  much  surprised;  but  when  he  ad- 
dressed Apollonius  by  name,  they  were  struck  with 
astonishment,  all  but  Apollonius,  who,  now  full  of  con- 
fidence, looking  at  Damis,  said,  "The  men  we  have  come 
to  visit  are  wise  indeed ;  they  know  the  future :"  and 
then  turning  to  the  Indian,  he  asked  him  what  he  should 
do,  for  he  wished  to  converse  with  the  Sophoi  imme- 

80  Vide  Hist.  Frag.  II,  438,  on  a  fragment  of  Megasthenes  and 
Bardesanes  on  Brahmans  and  Samanceans  in  Porphyry,  de  Absti- 
nent., 1.  iv,  c.  17,  ad  calcem. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  33 

diately.  The  man  answered,  "  Leave  your  people  here, 
but  come  you,  just  as  you  are,  so  they  (aurot)  request." 
This  "  they"  seemed  to  ApoUonius  quite  Pythagorean, 
and  he  followed  the  messenger  rejoicing. 

♦The  hill  of  the  Sophoi^^  rose  sheer  up  from  the  plain, 
and  was  about  as  high  as  the  Acropolis  at  Athens.  It 
was  besides  fortified  by  a  goodly  belt  of  rock,  on  which 
you  might  trace  the  impressions  of  hoofs,  and  beards, 
and  faces,  and  what  seemed  the  backs  of  falling  men. 
And  they  heard  that  when  Bacchus  and  Hercules  at- 
tempted the  place,  Bacchus  ordered  his  Pans,  as  able  to 
shake  it  to  its  foundation  (Uavovf;  7r/309  tov  creiafjiov),  to 
storm  it :  but  thunderstruck  by  the  Sophoi,  they  fell 
headlong  one  upon  the  other  and  so  left  these  marks 
upon  the  stones.  They  said  also,  that  about  and  around 
this  hill  a  cloud  hung  within  which  the  Sophoi  dwelt 
visible  and  invisible^^  at  will,  and  that  their  stronghold 
was  without  gates,  so  that  it  could  not  be  called  either 
enclosed  or  open. 

ApoUonius  and  his  guide  ascended  the  hill  on  the 
south  side.  He  saw  a  well  some  twenty-four  feet  about.^-^ 
Over  its  mouth  hung  a  dark  vapour  which  rose^*  as  the 

s^  Otesias  tells  of  a  sacred  place  in  an  uninhabited  part  of  the 
country,  which  the  Indians  honour  in  the  name  of  the  sun  and 
the  moon ;  it  is  fifteen  days'  journey  from  the  Sardian  mountains 
— TOV  opovi  rrjs  2ap5ou$,  §  8,  p.  81,  ed.  Didot.  See  also  Eeinaud,  who 
mentions  that  this  castle  of  the  Brahmans  was  known  to  the  Arabs 
— not  improbably  throu<,'h  Philostratus.— Mem.  de  I'lnde,  p.  86. 

82  A  somewhat  similar  power  is  ascribed  to  the  Caraunas  by 
Marco  Polo,  p.  33,  u.  s.,  and  is  employed  to  beguile  Oswif. — Burnt 
Nial.,  c.  xii,  1.  40. 

83  Opyviwu  nrrapwv. 

^  "  In  the  morning,  vapours  or  clouds  of  smoke  ascended  from 

D 


34  TRAVELS   OF 

heat  of  the  day  increased  and  at  noon  gave  out  all  the 
colours  of  the  rainbow.  He  was  told  that  here  the  sub- 
soil was  cinnabar  ((TavZapd')(Lvr}  yrj),  and  that  the  water 
of  the  well  was  sacred,  and  never  used,  and  that  all  the 
neighbourhood  swore  by  it.  Near  this  place  was  a 
crater,  which  threw  out  a  lead-coloured  flame  without 
smell  or  smoke,  and  which  bubbled  up  with  a  volcanic 
matter  that  rose  to  its  brim,  but  never  overflowed :  here 
the  Indians  purified  themselves  from  all  involuntary 
sins.  The  well,  the  Sophoi  called  the  well  of  the  test ; 
the  crater,  the  fire  of  pardon.^^  Here  were  also  seen 
tv\^o  vessels  of  black  stone — the  urns  of  the  winds  and 
of  the  rain  f^  and  the  one  or  the  other  is  opened  or  shut 
just  as  wind  or  rain  is  wanted  or  otherwise.  Here  too 
they  found  statues  of  the  most  ancient  Greek  gods, 
and  worshipped  in  the  Greek  manner ;  of  the  Poliau 
Minerva,  and  of  Bacchus,  and  of  the  Delian  and  Amy- 
clsean  Apollo.^''  The  Sophoi  look  upon  their  stronghold 
as  the  very  navel  of  India.     They  here  worship  fire  ob- 

the  wells  till  the  atmosphere  was  suflBciently  heated  to  hide  it/' 
between  the  Eavi  and  the  Chenab  — Burnes,  II,  38. 

^  With  the  well  of  the  text  compare :  the  test  fountain  in 
Ctesiasj  its  water  hardens  into  a  cheese-like  substance,  which 
when  rubbed  into  a  powder  and  mixed  with  water,  and  then  ad- 
ministered to  suspected  criminals,  makes  them  tell  all  they  ever 
did  (§  14,  p.  82)  :  also  the  water  of  probation  mentioned  by  Por- 
phyry. With  the  fire  of  pardon  compare  that  other  water,  in  some 
cave  temple  seemingly,  which  purified  from  voluntary  and  in- 
Toluntary  oflPences  (Porphyry  de  Styge). 

86  Olearius,  h.  1.,  suggests  that  these  may  have  been  barometers; 
and  then  Damis,  like  the  astronomer  in  Rasselas,  merely  confounds 
the  power  of  foretelling  with  the  power  of  producing. 

^7  n  6avfia<rrT]s  <pLKoao(f>ias  Si  rjv  Ivdoi  deovs  EWtjvikovs  rrpojKvvovai. — 
Plutarch  de  Fortuna  Alex.  Op.  Var.,  I,  p.  585. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  3o 

tained  from  tlie  sun's  rays,  and  at  noon  daily  liyirin  its 
praise. 

Apollonius,  in  an  address  to  the  Egyptians,  somewliat 
enigmatically  describes  the  life  of  the  Sophoi : — "I  have 
seen,"  he  says,  "  Brahmans  who  dwell  on  the  earth,  and 
yet  not  on  the  earth  ;  in  places  fortified,  and  yet  with- 
out walls;  and  who  possess  nothing,  and  yet  all  things." 
According  to  Damis  they  used  the  earth  as  a  couch,  but 
first  strewed  it  with  choice  grasses:  they  walked  too 
the  air^^ — Damis  himself  saw  them — and  this  not  to 
excite  wonder — all  ostentation  is  abhorrent  to  their 
nature, — but  in  imitation  of  and  as  a  more  fitting  ser- 
vice to  the  sun.  He  saw  too  the  fire  which  they  drew 
down  from  the  sun's  rays, — and  which  though  it  flamed 
on  no  altar  and  was  confined  by  no  hearth,  took  shape 
and  body  (crw/iaroef-Se?)  and  floated  in  mid-air,^^  where 
spite  of  the  darkness,  under  the  charm  of  their  hymned 
praises^^  it  stayed  unchanged.  As  in  the  night  they 
worshipped  this  fire,  so  in  the  day  they  worshipped  the 
sun  and  besought  it  to  order  the  seasons  for  India's 
good.  In  this  way  is  to  be  understood  ApoUonius's 
first  assertion :  "  The  Brahmans  live  on  the  earth,  and 
yet  not  on  the  earth."    His  second,  Damis  refers  to  that 


88  Atto  ttjs  77)s  es  irrix^is  dvo  (Pkilos.,  Ill,  c.  15),  two  cubits  from 
the  ground,  no  great  height,  but — ce  n'est  que  le  premier  pouce 
qui  coute. 

89  Sir  C.  Napier  says,  of  Trukkee,  *'  On  reaching  the  top,  where 
we  remained  during  the  night,  every  man's  bayonet  had  a  bright 
flame  on  the  point.  A  like  appearance  had  also  been  observed 
going  from  Ooch  to  Shapoor." — Life,  III,  272.  May  not  the  night 
light  of  the  Sophoi  be  referred  to  some  similar  phenomenon  ? 

^  Compare  with  c.  xv  the  xxxiii.  III. 


36  TRAVELS   OF 

covering  of  clouds  which  they  draw  over  themselves  at 
pleasure,  and  which  no  rain  can  penetrate.  His  third, 
to  those  fountains  which  bubble  up  for  his  Bacchanals 
when  Bacchus  shakes  the  earth  and  them,  and  from 
which  the  Indians  themselves  drink  and  give  to  others 
to  drink.  Well  therefore  may  ApoUonius  say,  that 
men,  who  at  a  moment's  notice  and  without  preparation 
can  get  whatever  they  want,  possess  nothing  and  yet 
all  things.^^  They  wear  their  hair  long,^^  like  the  old 
Macedonians,  and  on  their  head  a  white  mitre.^^  They 
go  bare-foot ;  and  their  coats  have  no  sleeves,  and  are 
of  wild  cotton,  of  an  oily  nature,  and  white  as  Pamphy- 
lian  wool,  but  softer.^*  Of  this  cotton  the  sacred  vest- 
ments are  made ;  and  the  earth  refuses  to  give  it  up  if 


^^  Compare  with  these  fountains  those  of  milk,  wine,  etc.,  of 
which  Calanus  speaks  in  his  interview  with  Onesicritus  (Strabo, 
ut  sup.,  §  64);  and  that  happy  India,  a  real  pays  de  Cocagne, 
which  Dio  Chrysostom  ironically  describes  in  Celsenis  Phrygise 
Orat.,  XXXV,  II,  p.  70. 

92  Hardy,  Eastern  Monachism  (p.  112),  by  which  it  would  seem 
that  the  Brahmans  wear  long  hair ;  the  Buddhist  priest,  on  the 
other  hand,  shaves  his  head;  so  also  Bardesanes  describes  the 
newly-elected  Samansean;  ^vpa/xevos  Se  rov  aiD/xaros  ra  irepiTra 
Aa/xj8ai/6t  aroX-qv  aTreiai  re  rrpos  ^afiavaiovs. — Porphyry,  ut  supra. 

93  Still  worn  by  some  of  the  mountain  tribes  about  Cabool. 
Elphinstone  says  of  the  Bikaneers,  "they  wear  loose  clothes  of 
white  cotton,  and  a  remarkable  turban  which  rises  high  over  the 
head."— Cabool,  I,  18. 

94  Hierocles  speaks  of  the  Brahman  garments  as  made  from  a 
soft  and  hairy  (S6piw:;Ta)5r?)  filament  obtained  from  stones  (asbestos). 
— Frag.  Hist.,  iv,  p.  430.  In  the  Mahawanso  among  the  presents 
of  Asoka  to  Dewananpiatisso,  are  "hand-towels  cleansed  by  being 
passed  through  the  fire,"  p.  70.  Burnes  says  of  the  Nawab  of 
Cabool,  he  "produced  some  asbestos,  here  called  cotton-stone, 
lound  near  Jelalabad"  (ii,  138) ;  see  also  Pliny,  xix.  4. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  37 

any  but  tliemselVes  attempt  to  gather  it.  They  carry  a 
stick,^^  and  wear  a  ring,  both  of  infinite  and  magic 
power. 

Apollonius  found  the  Sophoi  seated  on  brazen  stools, 
their  chief,  larchas,  on  a  raised  throne  of  bronze  orna- 
mented with  golden  images.  They  saluted  him  with 
their  hands,  but  larchas  welcomed  him  in  Greek,  asked 
him  for  the  King's  letter,  and  added,  that  it  wanted  a  8. 
As  soon  as  he  had  read  it,  he  asked  Apollonius,  "  AVhat 
do  you  think  of  us?"  "Oh!"  said  Apollonius,  "the 
very  journey  I  have  undertaken — and  I  am  the  first  of 
my  countrymen  who  has  undertaken  it — answers  that 
question."  "  In  what,  then,"  enquired  larchas,  "  do  you 
think  us  wiser  than  you  ?"  "  I  think  your  views  wiser, 
more  divine,"  answered  Apollonius ;  "  and  should  I  find 
that  you  know  no  more  than  I,  this  at  least  I  shall  have 
learned-^that  I  have  nothing  more  to  learn."  "Well," 
said  the  Indian,  "  other  people  usually  ask  of  those  who 
visit  them,  whence  they  come  and  who  they  are ;  but 
we,  as  a  first  proof  of  our  knowledge,  show  strangers 
that  we  know  them ;"  and  so  saying,  he  told  Apollonius 
who  his  father  was,  who  his  mother,  all  that  happened 
to  him  at  ^gae,  and  how  Damis  joined  him,  and  what 
they  had  said  and  done  on  the  journey;  and  this  so 
distinctly  and  fluently,  that  he  might  have  been  a 
companion  of  their  route.  Apollonius,  greatly  aston- 
ished, asked  him  how  he  knew  all  this.  "In  this 
knowledge,"  he  answered,  "  you  are  not  wholly  wanting, 
and  where  you  are  deficient  we  wiU  instruct  you,*^  for 

^5  "  The  first  three  classes  ought  to  carry  staves." — Menu,  i,  45; 
**  the  priest's  should  reach  to  his  hair." — lb.,  46. 
^  When  Damis  speaks  of  his  knowledge  of  languages  to  Apollo- 


38  TKAVELS   OF 

we  think  it  not  well  to  keep  secret  what  is  so  worthy 
of  being  known,  especially  from  you,  ApoUonius, — a 
man  of  most  excellent  memory.  And  Memory,  you 
must  know,  is  of  the  Gods  the  one  we  most  honour. 
"  But  how  do  you  know  my  nature  ?"  asked  ApoUonius. 
"  We,"  he  answered,  "  see  into  the  very  soul,  tracing  out 
its  qualities  by  a  thousand  signs.  But  as  midday  is  at 
hand,^^  let  us  to  our  devotions,  in  which  you  also  may, 

nius,  ApoUonius  merely  observes  that  he  himself  understands  all 
languages,  and  that  without  having  learned  them  ;  and  more,  that 
he  knows  not  only  what  men  speak,  but  their  secret  thoughts 
(L.  I.,  c.  xix).  But  as  in  India  he  is  accompanied  by,  and  frequently 
makes  use  of  an  interpreter;  this  pretension  of  his  has,  from  the 
time  of  Easebius  (in  Hieroclem,  xiv),  been  frequently  ridiculed  as 
an  idle  boast.  Philostratus,  however,  was  too  practised  a  writer 
to  have  left  his  hero  open  to  such  a  charge.  His  faults  are  of 
another  kind.  His  facts  and  statements  too  often,  and  with  a 
certain  air  of  design,  confirm  and  illustrate  each  other :  thus, 
with  regard  to  this  very  power  claimed  by  ApoUonius,  observe, 
that  he  professes  not  to  speak,  but  to  know  aU  languages  and 
men's  thoughts — a  difference  intelligible  to  all  who  are  familiar 
with  the  alleged  facts  of  mesmerism  ;  and  look  at  him  in  his  first 
interview  with  Phraotes ;  watch  him  listening  to,  and  under- 
standing the  talk  of  the  king  and  the  sages,  and  only  then  asking 
larchas  to  interpret  for  him  when  he  would  himself  speak.  Ob- 
serve, also,  that  larchas  admits  only  to  a  certain  extent  the  power 
of  ApoUonius,  and  remember  his  surprise  when  he  finds  that 
Phraotes  knows  and  speaks  Greek. 

^  "  At  sunrise,  at  noon,  and  at  sunset,  let  the  Brahman  go  to 
the  waters  and  bathe." — Menu,  vi,  22.  "  Sunrise  and  sunset  are 
the  hours  when,  having  made  his  ablution,  he  repeats  the  text 
which  he  ought  to  repeat." — ii,  222.  From  the  Vishnu  Purana, 
however,  it  seems  the  Eichas  ( the  hymns  of  the  Eig-veda)  shine 
in  the  morning,  the  prayers  of  the  Yajush  at  noon,  and  portions  of 
the  Saman  in  the  afternoon. — p.  235.  Bardesanes,  ut  supra,  rov 
roivvv  xpovov  ttjs  r^fxepas  Kot  ttjj  pvktos  rov  irKiKrrov  eis  vfivovs  twv  Becav 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  39 

if  you  will,  take  part."  Tliey  then  adjourned  to  tlie 
bath,  a  spring  like  that  of  Dircae  in  Boeotia  as  Damis 
says  who  afterwards  saw  Dircae.  They  first  took  off 
their  clothes,  and  then  anointed  their  heads  with  an 
uncruent  which  made  their  bodies  run  down  with  sweat, 
and  so  jumped  into  the  w^ater.  After  they  had  well 
bathed  they  put  garlands  on  their  heads  and  proceeded  to 
the  temple,  intent  on  their  hymn.  There  standing  round 
in  a  circle  with  larch  as  as  their  leader  they  beat  the 
ground  with  their  staves,  till  bellying  like  a  wave  it 
sent  them  up  into  the  air  about  two  cubits ;  and  then 
they  sang  a  hymn,  very  like  the  Psean  of  Sopliocles 
sung  at  Athens  to  ^sculapius.  When  they  had  again 
come  down  to  the  earth  and  had  performed  their  sacred 
duties,  larchas  called  the  youth  with  the  anchor,  and 
bade  him  take  care  of  Apollonius's  companions ;  and  he 
in  a  shorter  space  of  time  than  the  swiftest  birds,  was 
gone  and  was  back  again,  and  told  larchas, — "  I  have 
taken  care  of  them." 

Apollonius  was  then  placed  on  the  throne  of  Phraotes, 
and  larchas  bade  him  question  them  on  any  matter  he 
pleased,  for  he  was  now  among  men  who  knew  all 
things.  Apollonius  therefore  asked,  as  though  it  was  of 
all  knowledge  the  most  difficult,  "  Whether  the  Sophoi 
knew  themselves  ?"  But  larchas  answered  quite  con- 
trary to  his  expectation,  that  they  knew  all  things,  be- 
cause they  first  knew  themselves.  That,  without  this 
first  and  elementary  knowledge,  no  one  could  be  ad- 
mitted to  their  philosophy.  Apollonius,  remembering 
his  conversation  with  Phraotes  and  the  examination 
they  had  been  obliged  to  undergo,  assented  to  this. 


40  TRAVELS   OF 

more  especially  as  lie  felt  the  truth  of  the  observation 
in  himself  He  then  asked  "  What  opinion  they  held 
of  themselves  ? "  and  was  told,  "  that  they  held  them- 
selves to  be  gods,  because  they  were  good  men."  Apol- 
lonius  then  enquired  about  the  soul,  and,  when  he 
heard  that  they  held  the  opinions  of  Pythagoras,  he 
further  asked,  whether,  as  Pythagoras  remembered  him- 
self as  Euphorbus,  so  larchas  could  speak  of  some  one 
of  his  previous  lives,  either  as  Greek  or  Trojan,  or 
other  man  ?  larchas,  first  reproving  the  Greeks  for  the 
reverence  they  pay  to  the  Trojan  heroes  and  to  Achilles 
as  the  greatest  of  them,  to  the  neglect  of  better  men, 
Greek,  Egyptian,  and  Indian,  related :  how  years  long 
ago  he  had  been  one  Ganges  king  of  the  Indian  people, 
to  whom  the  Ethiopians  then  Indians  were  subject: 
how  this  Ganges,  ten  cubits  in  stature  and  the  most 
comely  of  men,  built  many  cities  and  drove  back  the 
Scythians  who  invaded  his  territories  :  and  how,  though 
robbed  of  his  wife  by  the  then  king  of  Phraotes^s  coun- 
try, he  had  unlike  Achilles  kept  sacred  his  alliance 
with  him  :  how  too  he  had  rendered  his  father  the 
Ganges^^  river  propitious  to  India,  by  inducing  it  to 
keep  within  its  banks  and  to  divert  its  course  to  the 
Ked  Sea  -}  how,  notwithstanding  aU  this,  the  Ethiopians 
murdered  him,  and  were  driven  by  the  hate  of  the  In- 

98  This  is  a  favourite  idea  of  Philostratus,  i.  e.  the  Heroica,  II, 
V,  677,  ed.  01ea.rii,  fol. 

99  The  Ganges  is  a  goddess. — Vishnu  Purana. 

1  Wilford  refers  this  to  the  legend  of  Bhagiratha,  *'  who  led  the 
Ganges  to  the  ocean,  tracing  with  the  wheels  of  his  chariot  two 
furrows,  which  were  to  be  the  limits  of  her  encroachments." — As. 
Ees.,  viii,  298. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYAXA.  41 

dians  and  the  now  sterile  earth  and  the  abortive  births 
of  their  wives  to  leave  their  native  land :  and  li^^w,  pur- 
sued by  his  ghost,  and  still  suffering  the  same  ills,  they 
wandered  from  place  to  place,  till  having  at  length  pun- 
ished his  murderers  they  settled  in  that  part  of  Africa 
from  them  called  Ethiopia.  He  told  too,  how  Ganges 
had  thrust  seven  adamantine  swords  deep  into  the 
ground  in  some  unknown  spot,  and  how  when  the  gods 
without  indicating  it  ordered  that  on  that  spot  a  sacri- 
fice should  be  offered,  he  then  a  child  of  four  years  old 
immediately  pointed  it  out.^  But  ceasing  to  speak  of 
himself,  he  directed  ApoUonius's  attention  to  a  youth 
of  about  twenty,  and  he  described  him  as  patient  under 
all  suffering  and  by  nature  especially  fitted  for  philo- 
sophy, but  beyond  measure  averse  to  it ;  and  his  aver- 
sion was  attributed  to  the  ill  treatment  and  injustice  he 
had  received  from  Ulysses  and  Homer  in  a  former  life. 
He  had  been  Palamedes. 

While  they  were  thus  talking,  a  messenger  announced 
the  king's  approach  and  that  he  would  arrive  towards 
evening,  and  came  to  consult  with  them  on  his  private 
affairs.  larchas  answered  that  he  should  be  welcome, 
and  that  he  would  leave  them  a  better  man  for  having 
known  "  this  Greek."  He  then  resumed  his  conversa- 
tion with  ApoUonius,  and  asked  him  to  tell  something 
of  his  previous  existence.  ApoUonius  excuses  himself, 
because  as  it  was  undistinguished  he  did  not  care  to 
remember  it.     "  But  surely,"  observed  larchas,  "  to  be 

2  So  the  sword  of  Mars  found  by  a  shepherd  and  presented  to 
Attila  constituted  him  "totius  mundi  principem." — Jornandes, 


42  TRAVELS   OF 

the  pilot  of  an  Egyptian  ship  is  no  such  ignoble  occu- 
pation, and  a  pilot  I  see  you  once  were."  "  True,"  re- 
plied Apollonius,  "  but  an  office  which  should  be  on  a 
par  with  that  of  the  statesman  or  the  general  has  by 
the  fault  of  sailors  themselves  become  contemptible  and 
degraded.  Besides  my  very  best  act  in  that  life  no  one 
deemed  worthy  even  of  praise."  "And  what  was  that?" 
asked  larchas.  "  Was  it  the  doubling  with  slackened 
sail  Malea  and  Sunium,  or  the  carefully  observing  the 
course  of  the  wdnds,  or  the  carrying  your  ship  over  the 
reefs  and  swell  of  the  Euboean  coast  ?"  "  Well/'  said 
Apollonius, "  if  I  must  speak  of  my  sailor  life,  I  will  tell 
you  of  something  I  did  then  which  I  think  was  wise 
and  honest.  In  those  days  pirates  infested  the  Phoe- 
nician Sea.  And  some  of  their  spies  knowing  that  my 
ship  was  richly  laden  came  to  me  and  sounded  me,  and 
asked  me  what  would  be  my  share  of  the  freight.  I 
told  them  a  thousand  drachmas,  for  we  were  four  pilots. 
'  And  what  sort  of  a  home  have  you  V  they  asked.  'A  hut 
on  Pharos,  where  Proteus  used  to  live,^^  I  answered. 
*  AVell,'  they  went  on, '  would  you  like  to  change  the  sea 
for  land — a  hut  for  a  house — to  receive  ten  times  the 
pay  you  look  for,  and  rid  yourself  at  the  same  time  of  the 
thousand  ills  of  the  tempestuous  sea  ?'  '  Aye,  that  I 
would,'  I  said.  They  then  told  me  who  they  were,  and 
offered  me  ten  thousand  drachmas,  and  promised  that 
neither  myself  nor  any  of  my  crew  should  suffer  harm 

3  Homer,  Odys.,  iv,  355,  and  frequently  alluded  to  in  Byzantine 
writers  as  vrjaov  rriv  Xeynftcprtv  Tlpwrews.  Pharos  ubi  Proteus  cum 
Phocarum  gregibus  diversatum  Homerus  fabulatur  inflatius. — 
Amin.  Marcell.,  xx,  16,  10. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  43 

if  I  gave  them  an  opportunity  of  taking  my  ship.  So 
we  agreed  that  I  should  set  sail  in  the  night,  but  lie-to 
under  the  promontory  ;  and  that  the  pirates,  who  w^ere 
at  anchor  on  the  other  side,  should  then  run  out  and 
seize  my  ship  and  cargo.  All  this  took  place  in  a 
temple,  and  I  made  them  swear  to  fulfil  their  promises ; 
while  I  agreed  on  my  part  to  do  as  they  wished.  But 
instead  of  lying-to  I  made  sail  for  the  open  sea  and  so 
got  ofi'."  "  And  this,"  observed  larchas,  "  you  think  an 
act  of  justice  ?"  "  Yes,"  said  ApoUonius,  "  and  of  hu- 
manity ;  for  to  save  the  lives  of  my  men,  and  the  pro- 
perty of  my  employers,  and  to  be  above  a  bribe,  though 
a  sailor,  1  hold  to  be  a  proof  of  many  virtues." 

larchas  smiled,  and  remarked :  "  You,  Greeks,  seem 
to  think  that  not  to  do  wrong  is  to  be  just.  Only  the 
other  day,  an  Egyptian  told  us  of  the  Eoman  procon- 
suls :  how,  though  knowing  nothing  of  the  people  they 
were  to  govern,  they  entered  their  provinces  with  naked 
axes ;  and  of  the  people :  how  they  praised  their  go- 
vernors if  they  only  were  not  venal,  just  like  slave- 
dealers  who  to  vaunt  their  wares  warrant  that  their 
Carians  are  not  thieves !  Your  poets  too  scarcely  allow 
you  to  be  just  and  good.  For  Minos  the  most  cruel  of 
men  and  who  with  his  fleets  enslaved  the  neighbouring 
peoples,  they  honour  with  the  sceptre  of  justice  as  the 
judge  of  the  dead.  But  Tantalus,  a  good  man,  who 
made  his  friends  partakers  of  immortality,  they  deprive 
of  food  and  drink."  And  he  pointed  to  a  statue  on  the 
left  inscribed  "  Tantalus."  It  was  four  cubits  high,  and 
of  a  man  of  about  fifty,  dressed  in  the  Argolic  fashion 
with  a  Thessalian  chlamys.     He  was  drinking  from  a 


44  TPtAVELS   OF 

cup  as  large  as  would  suffice  for  a  tliirsty  man,  and  a 
pure  drauglit  bubbled  up  in  it  without  overflowing. 

Their  conversation  was  here  interrupted  by  the  noise 
and  tumult  in  the  village  occasioned  by  the  king's 
arrival ;  and  larchas  angrily  observed,  "  Had  it  been 
Phraotes,  not  the  mysteries  had  been  more  quiet." 
ApoUonius,  seeing  no  preparations  made,  inquired  whe- 
ther they  intended  offering  the  king  a  banquet  ?  "  Aye, 
and  a  rich  one,  for  we  have  plenty  of  everything  here," 
they  said,  "  and  he  is  a  gross  feeder.  But  we  allow  no 
animal  food,  only  sweetmeats,  roots,  and  fruits  such  as 
India  and  the  season  afford.  But  here  he  comes."  The 
king,  glittering  with  gold  and  jewels,  now  approached. 
Damis  was  not  present  at  this  interview,  for  he  spent 
the  whole  of  the  day  in  the  village,  but  Apollonius 
gave  him  an  account  of  it  which  he  wrote  in  his  diary. 
He  says  that  the  king  approached  with  outstretched 
hands  as  a  suppliant,  and  that  the  sages  from  their 
seats  nodded  as  if  granting  his  petition,  at  which  he 
rejoiced  greatly  as  at  the  oracle  of  a  god ;  but  of  his 
son  and  brother  they  took  no  more  notice  than  of  the 
slaves  who  accompanied  him.  larchas  then  rose  and 
asked  him  if  he  would  eat.  The  king  assented,  and  four 
tripods  like  those  in  Homer's  Oljrmpus  rolled  them- 
selves in,  followed  by  bronze  cup-bearers.  The  earth 
strewed  itself  with  grass,  softer  than  any  couch ;  and 
sweets  and  bread,  fruits  and  vegetables,  all  excellently 
well  prepared,  moved  up  and  down  in  order  before  the 
guests.  Of  the  tripods  two  flowed  with  wine,  two  with 
water  hot  and  cold.  The  cups,  each  large  enough  for 
four  thirsty  souls,  and  the  wine-coolers,  were  each  one  of 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  45 

a  single  stone,  and  of  a  stone  in  Greece  so  precious  as  to 
be  set  in  rings  and  necklaces.  The  bronze  cup-bearers 
poured  out  the  wine  and  water  in  due  proportions,  as 
usual  in  drinking  bouts.^  They  all  lay  down  to  the 
feast,  the  king  with  the  rest,  for  no  place  of  honour  was 
assigned  him. 

In  the  course  of  the  dinner  larchas  said  to  the  king, 
''I  pledge  you  the  health  of  this  man,"  pointing  to 
Apollonius,  and  with  his  hand  signifying  that  he  was  a 
just  and  divine  man.  On  this  the  king  observed,  "  I 
understand  that  he,  and  some  others  who  have  put  up 
in  the  village,  are  friends  of  Phraotes."  "  You  under- 
stand rightly,"  said  larchas,  ''for  even  here  he  is 
Phraotes'  guest."  "  But  what  are  his  pursuits  ? "  asked 
the  king.  "Those  of  Phraotes,"  answered  larchas. 
"  Worthless  guest  worthless  pursuits !  they  prevent 
even  Phraotes  from  becoming  a  man  indeed,"  said  the 
king.  "  Speali  more  modestly  of  pliilosophy  and  Phra- 
otes," observed  larchas, — "this  language  does  not  be- 
come your  age."  Here  Apollonius,  through  larchas, 
inquired  of  the  king  "  what  advantage  he  derived  from 
not  being  a  philosopher?"  "This,  that  I  possess  all 
virtue  and  am  one  with  the  sun,"  answered  the  king. 
Apollonius  :  "  You  would  not  think  thus  if  you  were  a 
philosopher."  The  king:  "Well  friend  as  you  are  a 
philosopher,  tell  us  what  you  think  of  yourself."  Apol- 
lonius :  "  That  I  am  a  good  man  so  long  as  I.  am  a 
philosopher."  The  king :  "  By  the  sun,  you  come  here 
full  of  Phraotes."     Apollonius  :  "  Thank  heaven  then, 

4  So  Marco  Polo's  description  of  the  feasts  of  the  great  Khan, 
borrowed  probably  from  Apollonius,  c.  Jxxv,  pp.  71-9,  French  ed. 


46  TEAVELS   OF 

that  T  have  not  travelled  in  vain ;  and  if  you  could  see 
Phraotes,  you  would  say  he  was  full  of  me.  He  washed 
to  write  to  you  about  me,  but  when  he  told  me  that 
you  were  a  good  man,  I  bade  him  not  take  that  trouble, 
for  I  had  brought  no  letter  to  him."  When  tlie  king 
heard  that  Phraotes  had  spoken  well  of  him,  he  was 
pacified  and  forgot  his  suspicions ;  and  in  a  gentle  tone 
said:  "Welcome,  best  friend."  "Welcome  you,"  said 
Apollonius,  "  one  would  think  you  had  but  just  come 
in."  "  What  brought  you  to  this  place  ? "  asked  the 
king.  "  The  Gods  and  these  wise  inen,'^  answered 
Apollonius.  "  But  tell  me  stranger,  what  do  the  Greeks 
say  of  me  ? "  he  next  inquired.  "  Just  what  you  say  of 
them,'^  said  Apollonius.  "  But  that  is  just  nothing,"  he 
replied.  "I  will  tell  them  so,  and  they  wdll  crown  you  at 
the  Olympic  games,^'  Apollonius  observed.  Then  turning 
to  larchas  :  "  Let  us  leave  this  drunken  fool  to  himself. 
But  why  pray  do  you  pay  no  attention  to  his  son  and 
brother,  and  do  not  admit  them  to  your  table  ?"  "Be- 
cause," answered  larchas,  "  they  may  one  day  rule,  and 
by  slighting  them  we  teach  them  not  to  slight  others." 
Apollonius  then  perceiving  that  the  number  of  the 
Soplioi  was  eighteen,  observed  to  larchas  that  it  w^as 
not  a  square  number,  nor  indeed  a  number  at  all 
honoured  or  distinguished.  larchas  in  answer,  told  him 
that  they  paid  no  attention  to  number,  but  esteemed 
virtue  only ;  he  added,  that  the  college  wdien  his  grand- 
father entered  it  consisted  of  eighty-seven  Sophoi,  and 
that  his  grandfather  then  found  himself  its  youngest, 
and  eventually  in  the  one  hundred  and  thirtieth^  year 
5  Ibn  Batuta  speaks  of  Hindus  120,  130,  and  140  years  of  age. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  47 

of  liis  age,  its  only  surviving  member ;  that  no  eligible 
candidate  having  in  all  that  time  offered  himself  for 
admission,  he  remained  four  years  without  a  colleague : 
and  that  when  he  then  received  from  the  Egyptians 
congratulations  on  his  alone  occupying  the  seat  of 
wisdom,  he  begged  them  not  to  reproach  India  with  the 
small  number  of  its  wise  men.  larchas  then  went  on 
to  blame  the  Elians,  in  that  as  he  had  heard  from  the 
Egyptians,  they  elected  the  Olympic  dikasts  by  lot,  and 
thus  left  to  chance  what  should  be  the  reward  of  merit ; 
and  that  they  always  elected  the  same  number, — never 
more,  never  less ;  and  that  they  thus  sometimes  ex- 
cluded good  men  and  sometimes  were  obliged  to  choose 
bad  ones.  Better,  he  said,  it  had  been  if  the  Elians  had 
allowed  the  number  of  the  dikasts  to  vary  with  circum- 
stances, but  had  always  required  in  them  the  same 
qualifications. 

The  king  here  rudely  interrupted  them,  and  expressed 
his  dislike  of  the  Greeks,  and  spoke  of  the  Athenians 
as  the  slaves  of  Xerxes ;  ApoUonius  turning  to  him 
asked  if  he  had  any  slaves  of  his  own ;  "  Twenty  thou- 
sand," he  answered,  "  and  born  in  my  house. "^  "  Well, 
then,"  said  ApoUonius  (always  through  larchas),  "  as 
you  do  not  run  away  from  them,  but  they  from  you,  so 
Xerxes  fled  like  a  worthless  slave  from  before  the 
Athenians  when  he  had  been  conquered  at  Salamis." 

Burnes  of  one  at  Cabul  of  114,  apparently  with  all  his  faculties 
about  him.— II,  109. 

6  According  to  Megasthenes,  civai  Se  kuI  toSc  n^ya  cv  ttj  li'dwv  yrj 
vavras  lv5uvs  (ifol  f\(v6e^)ovs. — Ai'rian,  Indica,  xi.  ovSe  IvSois  aWos 
ZovKos  eo-Tt.  Onesicritus  limits  this  to  the  subjects  of  Musicanus. 
— Strabo,  ut  sup.,  §  54-. 


48  TRAVELS   OF 

"  But  surely,"  observed  the  king,  "  Xerxes,  with  his 
own  hands  set  fire  to  Athens?"  "Yes,"  said  Apol- 
lonius,  "hut  how  fearful  was  his  punishment!  He 
became  a  fugitive  before  those  whom  he  had  hoped  to 
destroy ;  and  in  his  very  flight  was  most  unhappy :  for 
had  he  died  by  the  hands  of  the  Greeks,  what  a  tomb 
would  they  not  have  built  for  him  !  what  games  not  in- 
stituted in  his  memory ! — as  knowing  that  they  honoured 
themselves  when  they  honoured  those  whom  they  had 
subdued."  On  this  the  king  burst  into  tears,  and 
excused  himself,  and  attributed  his  prejudices  against 
the  Greeks  to  the  tales  and  falsehoods  of  Egyptian 
travellers,  who  while  they  boasted  of  their  nation  as 
wise  and  holy  and  author  of  those  laws  relating  to 
sacrifices  and  mysteries  which  obtain  in  Greece, 
described  the  Greeks  as  men  of  unsound  judgement, 
the  scum  of  men,  (rvyK\vha<;,  insolent  and  lawless, 
romancers,  and  miracle-mongers,  poor,  and  parading 
their  poverty  not  as  something  honourable  but  as  an 
excuse  for  theft.  "But  now,"  he  went  on  to  say,  "that  I 
know  them  to  be  full  of  goodness  and  honour,  I  hold 
them  as  my  friends,  and  as  my  friends  praise  them  and 
wish  them  all  the  good  I  can.  I  will  no  longer  give 
credit  to  these  Egyptians."  larchas  here  observed  that 
though  he  had  long  seen  that  the  Egyptians  had  the 
ear  of  the  king,  he  had  said  nothing  but  waited  till  the 
king  should  meet  with  such  a  counsellor  as  Apollonius. 
Now  however  that  you  are  better  tauglit,  let  us",  he  con- 
cluded, "drink  together  the  loving-cup  of  Tantalus  and 
then  to  sleep  :  for  we  have  business  to  transact  to-night. 
I  will  however  as  occasion  offers  indoctrinate  you  in 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  49 

Grecian  learning,  the  fullest  in  the  world.  And  so 
stooping  to  the  cup  he  first  drank  and  then  handed  it 
to  the  other  guests ;  and  there  was  enough  for  all,  for  it 
bubbled  up  as  if  from  a  fountain. 

They  lay  down  to  rest,  and  arose  at  midnight,  and 
aloft  in  the  air  hymned  the  praises  of  the  sun's  ray. 
The  Sophoi  then  gave  private  audience  to  the  king. 
'Next  morning  early,  after  the  sacred  rites,  the  king,  for 
the  law  forbade  his  remaining  more  than  one  day  at  the 
college,  retired  to  the  village  and  vainly  pressed  Apol- 
lonius  to  visit  him  there.  The  Sophoi  then  sent  forDamis, 
whom  they  admitted  as  a  guest.  The  conversation  now 
began ;  and  larchas  discoursed  on  the  world :  how  it  is 
composed  of  five  elements — water,  fire,  air,  earth,  and 
aether  ;^  and  how  they  are  all  co-ordinate,  but  that  from 
aether  the  Gods,  from  air  mortals,  are  generated ;  how 
moreover  the  w^orld  is  an  animal  and  hermaphrodite ; 
and  how  as  hermaphrodite  it  reproduces  by  itself  and 
of  itself  all  creatures  ;  and  how  as  intelligent  it  provides 
for  their  wants,  and  with  scorching  heats  punishes  their 
wrong-doing.  And  this  world  larchas  further  likened 
to  one  of  those  Egjrptian  ships^  which  navigate  the 

7  Megasthenes  (Strabo,  ut  sup.,  §  59)  gives  pretty  nearly  the 
same  account  of  the  Brahminical  doctrines,  that  the  world  has  a 
beginning,  and  will  have  an  end  ;  that  God,  its  ruler  and  creator, 
pervades  it ;  and  that  besides  the  four  elements  there  is  a  fifth, 
aether ;  and  Alexander  Polyhistor  asserts  that  Pythagoras  was  a 
disciple  of  the  Brahmans ;  Frag.  Hist.,  Ill,  §  238,  p.  239,  and  p. 
241  mentions  aether  as  one  of  the  Pythagorean  elements.  Also 
Aristotle  de  Mundo,  II,  from  a  note  to  Mas'udis  Meadows  of 
Gold,  Or.  Tr.  Fund,  p.  179. 

8  The  boat  among  the  Hindus  is  one  of  the  types  of  the  earth. 
— Wilford,  As.  Res.,  viii,  274 ;  Von  Bohlen  quotes  this  passage  to 

E 


50  TRAVELS   OF 

Ked  Sea.  "  By  an  old  law,  no  galley  is  allowed  tliere ; 
but  only  vessels  round  fore  and  aft  (aToyyvXoi),  fitted 
for  trade.  Well,  these  vessels  the  Egyptians  have 
enlarged  by  building  up  their  sides,  and  fitting  them 
with  several  cabins  f  and  they  have  manned  them  with 
pilots  at  the  prow,  seamen  for  the  masts  and  sails,  and 
marines  as  a  guard  against  the  barbarians;  and  over 
and  above  them  all  have  set  one  pilot  who  rules  and 
directs  the  rest.  So  in  the  world  there  is  the  first  God, 
its  creator;  next  him,  the  gods  who  rule  its  several 
parts — sung  by  the  poets,  as  gods  of  rivers,  groves,  and 
streams:  gods  above  the  earth,  and  gods  under  the 
earth ;  and  perchance  too  below  the  eartli,  but  distinct 
from  it,  is  a  place  terrible  and  deadly."  Here,  unable 
to  contain  himself,  Damis  cried  out,  in  admiration: 
"  Never  could  I  have  believed  that  any  Indian  was  so 
thoroughly  conversant  with  the  Greek  language,  and 
could  speak  it  with  such  fluency  and  elegance ! " 

A  messenger  now  announced  and  introduced  several 
Indian  suppliants — a  child  possessed,  a  lame  and  blind 
man,  etc., — all  of  whom  were  cured. 

larch  as  further  initiated  Apollonius,  but  not  Damis, 
in  astrology  and  divination  and  in  those  sacrifices  and 
invocations  in  which  the  gods  delight.  He  spoke  of 
the  divining  power  as  raising  man  to  an  equality  with 
the  Delphian  Apollo,  and  as  requiring  -a  pure  heart  and 

prove  that  the  Hindus  had  the  knowledge  of  one  God. — Das  Alte 
Indian,  i,  152. 

9  See  Ibn  Batoutah's  description  of  a  Chinese  boat,  iv,  92-3, 
and  350,  and  64,  pp.  Of  the  ships  employed  in  the  Indian 
trade,  Pliny  "  Omnibus  annis  navigatur  sagittariorum  cohortibua 
impositis,  etenim  Piratse  nozime  impestant." — Hist.  Nat.,  vi,  26. 


APOLLOXIUS   OF  TYANA.  51 

a  stainless  life,  and  as  therefore  readily  apprehensible 
by  the  aetherial  soul  of  ApoUonius.  He  extolled  it  as 
a  source  of  immense  good  to  mankind,  and  referred  to  it 
the  physician's  art — for  was  not  ^sculapius  the  son  of 
Apollo  ?  and  was  it  not  through  his  oracles  that  he 
discovered  the  several  remedies  for  diseases,  herbs  for 
wounds,  etc.  ? 

Then  turning,  in  a  pleasant  way,  to  Damis, — "  And 
you  Assyrian,"  he  said,  "  do  you  never  foresee  anything 
— ^you,  the  companion  of  such  a  man?"  "Yes,  by 
Jove,"  answered  Damis,  "  matters  that  concern  myself ; 
for  when  I  first  met  with  this  ApoUonius,  he  seemed  to 
me  a  man  full  of  wisdom  and  gravity  and  modesty  and 
patience ;  and  for  his  memory  and  great  learning  and 
love  of  learning  I  looked  upon  him  as  a  sort  of 
Daemon ;  and  I  thought  that  if  I  kept  with  him,  that 
instead  of  a  simple  and  ignorant  man  I  should  become 
wise, — ^learned  instead  of  a  barbarian;  and  that  if  I 
followed  him  and  studied  with  him  I  should  see  the 
Indians  and  see  you;  and  that  through  his  means  I 
should  live  with  the  Greeks,  a  Greek.  As  to  you  then, 
you  are  occupied  with  great  things,  and  think  Delphi 
and  Dodona  or  what  you  will.  As  for  me,  when  Damis 
predicts  he  predicts  for  himself  only  like  an  old  witch." 
At  these  words  all  the  Sophoi  laughed. 

ApoUonius  enquired  about  the  Martichora,^^  an 
animal  the  size  of  a  lion,  four-footed,  with  the  head  of 
a  man,  its  tail  long  with  thorns  for  hairs  which  it  shoots 
out  at  those  who  pursue  it; — about  the  golden  foun- 

1"  Ctesias,  p.  80,  §  7 ;  Didot. 


52  TKAVELS    OF 

tain^^  too ;  and  the  men  who  use  their  feet  for  "ambrellas^ 
the  sciapods.^^  Of  the  golden  fountain  and  Martichora 
larch  as  had  never  heard ;  but  he  told  Apollonius  of  the 
Pentarba  and  showed  him  the  stone  and  its  effects.  It 
is  a  wonderful  gem  about  the  size  of  a  man's  thumb- 
nail and  is  found  in  the  earth  at  a  depth  of  four 
fathoms ;  but  though  it  makes  the  ground  to  swell  and 
crack,  it  can  only  be  got  at  by  the  use  of  certain  cere- 
monies and  incantations.  It  is  of  a  fiery  colour  and  of 
extraordinary  brilliancy,  and  of  such  power,  that  thrown 
into  a  stream  it  draws  to  it^^  and  gathers  round  it  all 
precious  stones  within  a  certain  considerable  range.^* 
The  pigmies  he  said  lived  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ganges 
and  under  ground;  but  the  Sciapods  and  Longheads  were 
mere  inventions  of  Scylax,  He  described  also  the  gold- 
digging  griffins ;  that  they  were  sacred  to  the  Sun  (his 
chariot  is  represented  as  drawn  by  them^^)  about  the 
size  of  lions,^^  but  stronger  because  winged ;  that  their 

^1  Id.,  p.  73,  §  4.  Wilson,  Notes  on  Ctesias,  explains  and  ac- 
counts for  these  myths. 

12  Id.,  §  104  and  84.  Among  the  people  of  India,  from  Hindu 
authority  quoted  by  Wilford,  are  the  Ecapada,  one-footed.  "  Mo- 
nosceli  singulis  cruribus,  eosdemque  Sciapodas  vocari,"  from 
Pliny  (ih.)  From  "Wilson's  Notes,  the  one-footed  and  the  Sciapods 
should  be  two  different  races. 

13  Something  like  this  was  that  jewel  by  the  aid  of  which 
Tchagkuna  recovered  that  other  jewel  which  he  had  thrown  into 
the  water. — Eadjatarangini,  tr.  d.  Troyer,  II,  p.  147. 

1*  Strabo  from  Megasthenes,  ib.,  §  56.     Ctesias  also  mentions  it, 
1=  In  the  Vishnu  Parana :  "  The  seven  horses  of  the  sun's  car 

are  the  metres  of  the  Yedas,"  p.  218.    Sculptured  or  painted  horses 

always. 
16  Ctesias,  p.  82,  §  12,  and  p.  95,  §  70.    Wilson  (Ariana  Antiqua) 

has  shown  from  the  Mahabharata,  (Mahabharata,  1859-60,  Slok., 

Fauche's  tr.  II,  p.  53),  that  this  story  has  an  Indian  foundation. 

"  Those  tribes  between  Meru  and  Mandura  verily  presented  in 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  53 

wings  were  a  reddish  membrane,  and  hence  their  flight 
was  low  and  spiral ;  that  they  overpowered  lions,  ele- 
phants, and  dragons ;  and  that  the  tiger  alone  because  of 
his  swiftness  was  their  equal  in  fight.  He  told  of  the 
Phoenix,  the  one  of  his  kind,  born  of  the  sun's  rays  and 
shining  with  gold,  and  that  his  five  hundred  years  of 
life  were  spent  in  India ;  and  he  confirmed  the  Egyptian 
account  of  this  bird — that  singing  his  own  dirge  he  con- 
sumed himself  in  his  aromatic  nest  at  the  fountains  of 
the  Mle.  Similarly  also  swans  it  is  said  sing  themselves 
to  death,  and  have  been  heard  by  those  who  are  very 
quick  of  ear. 

They  remained  four  months  with  the  Sophoi.  When 
they  took  their  departure,  larchas  gave  Apollonius  seven 
rings  named  after  the  seven  planets  ;  these  rings  he 
ever  afterwards  wore  each  in  its  turn  on  its  name-day. 
The  Sophoi  provided  him  and  his  party  with  camels 
and  a  guide,  and  accompanied  them  on  the  road ;  and 
prophesying  that  Apollonius  would  even  during  his 
life  attain  the  honours  of  divinity  they  took  leave  of 
him,  and  many  times  looking  back  as  in  grief  at  parting 
with  such  a  man  returned  to  their  college.  Apollonius 
and  his  companions,  with  the  Ganges  on  their  right  the 
Hyphasis  on  their  left  {sic),  travelled  down  towards  the 
sea-coast,  a  ten  days'  journey,  and  on  their  road  they 
saw  many  birds  and  wild  oxen,  asses  and  lions,  panthers 

lumps  of  a  drona  weight,  that  gold  which  is  dug  up  by  Pippi- 
likas  (ants),  and  which  is  therefore  called  '  Pippilika  ant-gold'." 
(  P.  135,  note).  See  also  A  Journey  to  Lake  Manasarovara,  by 
Moorcroft,  who  speaks  of  a  sort  of  marmot  in  the  gold  country 
which  Schwanbeck  supposes  to  be  the  original  of  this  ant. — As. 
Res.,  xii,  442.  This  myth  was  not  unknown  to  the  Arabs. — Gil- 
demeister  Script.  Arab,  de  Eebus  Indicis,  p.  221. 


54  TR.VVELS   OF 

and  tigers,  and  a  species  of  ape  different  from  those  that 
frequent  the  pepper-groves,  black,  hairy,  and  dog-faced, 
and  like  little  men.  And  so  conversing  as  their  cus- 
tom was  of  what  they  saw,  they  reached  the  coast,  where 
they  found  a  small  factory  and  passage-boats  of  a 
Tuscan  build  and  the  sea  of  a  very  dark  colour.  Here 
Apollonius  sent  back  the  camels  with  this  letter  to 
larchas : — 

"  To  larchas  and  the  other  Sophoi  from  Apollonius, 
greeting :  I  came  to  you  by  land,  with  your  aid  I  return 
by  sea,  and  might  have  returned  through  the  air^'^ — 
such  is  the  wisdom  you  have  imparted  to  me.  Even 
among  the  Greeks  I  shall  not  forget  these  things,  and 
shall  still  hold  commerce  with  you — or  I  have  indeed 
vainly  drunk  of  the  cup  of  Tantalus.^^  Farewell,  ye 
best  philosophers." 

Apollonius  then  embarked,  and  set  sail  with  a  fair 
and  gentle  breeze.  He  admired  the  Hyphasis,  wliich 
at  its  mouth  narrow  and  rocky  hurries  through  beetling 
cliffs  into  the  sea  with  some  danger  to  those  who  hug 
the  land.  He  saw  too  the  mouth  of  the  Indus,  and 
Patala,  a  city  built  on  an  island  formed  by  the  Indus, 
where  Alexander  collected  his  fleet.     And  Damis  con- 

17  Easy  and  pleasant  as  this  mode  of  travel  is  thought  to  be, 
Apollonius  had  recourse  to  it  but  once — on  that  memorable  occa- 
sion when  about  mid-day  he  disappeared  from  before  the  tribunal 
of  Domitian,  and  the  same  evening  met  Damis  at  Diceearchia, 
Puteoli,  Vit.  Apol.  Philostr.,  viii,  xc. 

18  Philostratus,  v,  1,  has  another  letter  purporting  to  be  written 
by  Apollonius  to  larchas.  He  shows  us  too  Apollonius  occasionally 
and  always  reverentially  speaking  of  larchas  and  Phraotes,  and 
Porphyry,  nepi  'Srvyos,  quotes  a  letter  of  Apollonius  in  which  he 
swears  fia  ro  TavraXiov  vSatp — from  Staboeus. — In  Olearius,  note  c.  51, 
III,  L.  Philost. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  55 

firms  what  Orthagoras  lias  related  of  the  Eed  Sea — that 
the  Great  Bear  is  not  there  visible  ;  that  at  noon  there 
is  no  shadow ;  and  that  the  stars  hold  a  different  posi- 
tion in  the  heavens. 

He  speaks  of  Byblus  with  its  large  mussels,  and  of 
Pagala  of  the  Oritae  where  the  rocks  and  the  sands  are 
of  copper ;  of  the  city  Stobera  and  its  inhabitants  the 
Ichthyophagi,  who  clothe  themselves  in  fish-skins  and 
feed  their  cattle  on  fish;  of  the  Carmani,  an  Indian 
race  and  civilized,  who  of  the  fish  they  catch  keep  only 
what  they  can  eat,  and  throw  the  rest  living  back  into 
the  sea  ;  and  of  Balara  where  they  anchored,  a  mart  for 
myrrh  and  palms.  He  tells  too  of  the  mode  in  w^hich 
the  people  get  their  pearls.  In  this  sea  which  is  very 
deep  the  white-shelled  oyster  is  fat,  but  naturally  pro- 
duces no  pearls.  When  however  the  weather  is  very  calm 
and  the  sea  smooth  and  made  still  smoother  by  pouring 
oil  upon  it,  the  Indian  diver  equipped  as  a  sponge-cutter 
with  the  addition  of  an  iron  plate  and  a  box  of  myrrh  goes 
down  to  hunt  for  oysters.  As  soon  as  he  has  found  one 
he  seats  himself  beside  it,  and  with  his  myrrh  stupefies  it 
and  makes  it  open  its  shell.  The  moment  it  does  this, 
he  strikes  it  with  a  skewer  and  receives  on  his  iron 
plate  cut  into  shapes  the  ichor  which  is  discharged  from 
its  wound.  In  these  shapes  the  ichor  hardens,  and  the 
pearls  thus  made  differ  in  nothing  from  real  pearl.^^ 
This  sea  he  adds  is  full  of  monsters,  from  which  the 

^9  Is  this  an  indistinct  and  garbled  account  of  the  Chinese  mode 
of  making  pearls  described  in  a  late  Journal  of  the  Society  ?  Tzetzes 
says  that  two  origins  are  ascribed  to  pearls.  Some  assert  that 
they  are  the  produce  of  lightnings  others  that  they  are  x^'poiTrorjroys; 
and  he  then  describes  the  modus  operandi,  which  is  that  in  our 
text,  and  probably  borrowed  from  it. — Chiliad.,  xi,  p.  375j  472  L. 


56  TRAVELS   OF 

sailors  protect  tliemselves  by  bells^^  at  the  poop  and 
prow.  Thus  sailing,  they  at  last  reach  the  Euphrates, 
and  so  up  to  Babylon,  and  again  meet  Bardanes. 

In  reviewing  this  account  of  India,  our  first  enquiry 
is  into  the  authority  on  which  it  rests.  Damis  was  the 
companion  of  ApoUonius,  so  Philostratus  and  not  im- 
possibly public  rumour  affirmed.  Damis  wrote  a  jour- 
nal, and  though  no  scholar  was  according  to  Philostratus 
as  capable  as  any  man  of  correctly  noting  down  what 
he  saw  and  heard.^i  But  Damis  died,  and  his  journal, 
if  journal  he  kept  and  such  a  journal  ever  existed,  lay 
buried  with  him  for  upwards  of  a  century,  till  one  of 
his  family  presented  it  to  the  Empress  Julia  Domna  the 
wife  of  Severus,  curious  in  such  matters.  But  in  what 
state  ? — untouched  ? — with  no  additions  to  suit  the 
Empress's  taste  ?  Who  shall  tell  ?  Again,  the  Em- 
press did  not  order  this  journal  to  be  published,  but 
gave  it  to  Philostratus  a  sophist  and  a  rhetorician,  with 
instructions  to  re- write  and  edit  it ;  and  so  re-written 
and  edited  he  at  length  published  it,  but  not  till  after 
the  death  of  his  patroness,  the  Empress.  Weighing 
then  these  circumstances  all  open  to  grave  suspicion, 


^  Nearchus  drives  these  same  fish  away,  rats  oa\my^ip. — Strabo, 
XV,  II,  12,  p.  617,  as  was  still  done  in  Strabo's  time.— ih.,  p.  138, 
Didot  ed.  The  Arabs  similarly.  In  the  Voyages  Arabes  (tr.  Rei- 
naud)  of  a  monster  fish  in  their  seas,  we  are  told,  "  La  nuit  les 
equipages  font  sonner  des  cloches  semblables  aux  cloches  des 
Chretiens,  c'est  enfin  d'empecher  ce  poisson  de  s'appuyer  sur  le 
navire  et  de  le  sub  merger." — I,  p.  2. 

^^  AiarpiPrjv  apayparpai,  Kai  6,  ri  rjKovaev  rj  fiSev  avarvtrcoaai — (T<podpa 
iKauos  riv,  Kai  eTrereSeue  tovto  apiara  apdpcoTrwv. — i,  c.  19. 


APOLLONIUS   OF   TYANA.  57 

every  one  must  admit  that  the  journal  of  Damis  gives 
no  authority  to  Philostratus's  work ;  but  that  this  last, 
and  more  especially  tlie  books  which  relate  to  India, 
may  give  authority  to  the  journal  and  history.  By 
their  contents  then  they  must  be  judged. 

That  ApoUonius  should  pay  little  attention  to,  and 
not  very  accurately  describe,  external  objects  might  be 
expected.  One  can  understand  that,  occupied  w^ith  the 
soul  and  the  gods,  he  should  toil  up  the  Ilindii-kiish 
without  one  remark  on  its  snow-covered  peaks — one 
plaint  on  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  its  ascent.-^  But 
how  explain  these  lengthy  descriptions  of  animals  and 
natural  wonders  that  never  had  existence  ?  If  you  put 
forward  Damis — of  the  earth,  earthy,  the  Sancho  Panza 
of  this  Quixote — an  eager  and  credulous  listener,  you 
have  still  to  show  how  it  is,  that  these  descriptions  so 
exactly  tally  with  those  of  Ctesias  and  the  historians  of 
Alexander ;  how  it  is  they  are  never  original,  except  to 
add  to  our  list  of  errors  or  to  exaggerate  errors  already 
existing.  Thus  on  Caucasus,  more  fortunate  than  the 
soldiers  of  Alexander,  he  not  only  hears  of  Prometheus 
but  sees  his  chains.  He  climbs  Mount  Kysa,  and  has 
to  tell  of  Bacchus  and  his  orgies,  and  they  are  now  no 
longer  the  inventions  of  flattery  as  Eratosthenes  so 
shrewdly  suspected,  for  Damis  there  found  his  temple 
and  his  statue.     Similarly  in  general  terms  Seleucus 


22  Dangers  which  not  even  Hionen-Thsang  was  indifferent  to; 
but  Apollonius's  indifference  we  may  account  for  by  an  observation 
of  Cicero  :  "  In  India,  qui  sapientes  habentur,  nudi  aetatem  agunt, 
et  Caucasi  nives  hyemalemque  vim  perferunt  sine  dolore." — Tusc. 
Qusest.,  lib.  v. 


58  TRAVELS   OF 

Mcator  and  Onesicritus  had  vaunted  the  long  life  of 
elephants ;  but  in  Taxila  Damis  admired  the  elephant 
of  Porus  and  on  its  golden  bracelets  read  its  name  and 
age.  Copying  Ctesias,  he  speaks  of  the  Indus  as  forty 
stadia  broad  where  narrowest  ;^^  of  giant  Indians  five 
cubits  high ;  of  worms  with  an  inextinguishable  oil ;  of 
winged  griffins,  but  instead  of  large  as  wolves  he  makes 
them  as  large  as  lions ;  and  of  the  swift  one-horned  ass 
and  the  jewel  Pantarbas,  both  of  which  he  and  Apollo- 
nius  saw.  Again  Onesicritus  knew  by  hearsay  of  ser- 
pents the  pets  of  Aposeisares,^*  of  eighty  and  a  hundred 
and  forty  cubits.  Damis  had  been  present  at  a  dragon- 
hunt  and  had  seen  dragons'  heads  hanging  as  trophies 
in  the  streets  of  Paraka.  Surely  such  information,  not 
put  forward  as  mere  reports  but  solemnly  vouched  for, 
can  never  have  come  from  a  man  who  had  really  visited 
India,  or  they  came  from  one  of  as  little  authority  as 
Mendez  Pinto,  when  lie  gives  an  account  of  his  expedi- 
tion to  and  a  description  of  the  imperial  tombs  of 
China.25 

But,  it  will  be  said,  these  w^onders  were  the  common 
stock  in  trade  of  Indian  travellers  ;  every  man  believed 
in  them,  and  every  man  who  went  to  India  and  wrote 
of  India,  was  ashamed  of  not  seeing  at  least  as  much  as 

^2  Philostratus  scarcely  so  strong,  to  "yap  rrXooiixov  avrov  Toaovrov, 
its  breadth  at  the  ferry  where  people  usually  cross. — II,  17  and  18. 

^^  One  of  the  Ptolemies  could  boast  a  similar  pet,  but  it  was 
only  thirty-five  cubits  long,  rpiaxovTairevratrrixvv. — Tzetzes,  Ch.  Ill, 
Hist.  113. 

25  Pinto  narrates  what  he  saw — Damis  like — and  not,  that  he  had 
heard  something  like  what  he  narrates.  See  Masoudi,  p.  313, 
Eng.  tr. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  59 

Lis  predecessors.  Leaving  tlien  these  common-places, 
examine  Damis  where  he  is  original,  or  nearly  so.  To 
him  we  owe  the  porphjrry  temple  and  the  metal  mosaics 
at  Taxila ;  to  him,  that  spur  of  Caucasus,  stretching 
down  from  the  Indian  side  of  the  Hyphasis  to  the  In- 
dian Ocean;  to  him,  its  pepper-forests, and  its  monkeys, 
so  useful  in  gathering  the  pepper-harvests.  Through  him 
we  know  of  the  groves  sacred  to  Venus,  and  the  unguent 
so  necessary  to  an  Indian  marriage.  He  alone  tells  of 
the  wondrous  hill;  its  crater-fire  of  pardon,  its  rain- 
cask,  and  its  brimming-cup  of  Tantalus ;  and  though  of 
wind-bags  and  of  self-acting  tripods  Homer  had  already 
written,  and  though  of  a  well  of  the  test  Ctesias  had 
vaguely  heard  and  its  qualities  Bardesanes  has  described, 
Damis  gives  them  local  habitation,  has  seen  them  all. 

With  the  Sophoi  Damis  lived  four  months  in  closest 
intimacy,  and  yet  from  his  description  of  them,  who 
shall  say,  who  and  what  they  were  ?  To  the  powders  he 
ascribes  to  them  both  Buddhists  and  Brahmans  pretend. 
But  while  their  mode  of  election  determined  by  ances- 
tral and  personal  character  points  them  out  as  Buddhists, 
their  name,  their  long  hair,  their  worship  of  the  sun, 
declare  them  Brahmans.^^  But  Buddhist  or  Brahman, 
at  their  feet  after  a  long  and  weary  travel  Apollonius 
sits  a  disciple,  and  they  instruct  him — in  doctrines  and 
opinions  which  were  current  at  Athens.  In  the  very 
heart  of  India  he  finds  its  sages^*^  though  "inland  far 

26  Bardesanes,  who  knew  of  Bralimans  and  Buddhists  only  from 
report,  has  given  a  very  clear  and  intelligible  account  of  both.  I 
have  already  referred  to  it. —  Porphyry,  iv,  17. 

27  That  a  Greek  kincrdom  with  Greeks  as  its  rulers,  could  not  have 


60  TRAVELS   OF 

they  be",  well  acquainted  with  Greek  geography  and 
the  navigation  of  the  Grecian  seas,  worshipping  Greek 
gods,  speaking  Greek,  thinking  Greek, — more  Greek 
than  Indian.  Absurd  and  impossible  as  this  description 
seems  to  us,  our  Damis,  if  I  judge  him  rightly,  was  not 
the  man  to  advance  what  the  Greek  mind  was  wholly 
unprepared  to  receive.  Accordingly,  long  ago  Clitar- 
chus  and  the  historians  of  Alexander  had  announced  an 
Indo-Greek  Bacchus;  to  him  Megasthenes  added  a  Her- 
cules ;  and  more  recently  Plutarch  had  proclaimed,  I 
know  not  on  what  authority,  that  the  Indians  were 
worshippers  of  the  Greek  gods  f^  vague  rumours  therefore 
of  such  a  worship  were  not  improbably  current,  and 
Damis's  journal  merely  confirmed  them.  Again  Mcolaus 
Damascenus^^  was  the  first  who  spoke  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage in  connection  with  India.  He  states,  that  when  at 
Antioch  Epidaphne  (22  B.C.)  he  met  with  some  Indian 
ambassadors  on  their  way  to  Augustus  Csesar,  and  that 
their  letter  of  credentials  was  in  Greek.  Diodorus,^^ 
quoting  lambulus,  speaks  of  the  king  of  Palibothra  as  a 
lover  of  Greeks.  Plutarch  fend  of  the  first  century) ,  though 

existed,  bordering  on  India  and  in  India  for  upwards  of  a  century, 
without  some  influence  on  the  Hindu  mind,  what  we  now  see  going 
on  in  India  assures  us ;  but  that  that  influence  was  very  limited  we 
may  gather  from  the  very  examples  which  its  most  strenuous  sup- 
porter adduces  to  prove  it. — Reinaud,  Mem.  sur  I'lnde,  pp.  333, 
347,  362,  363. 

2^  Vide  supra,  note  6. 

2a  Frag.  Hist.,  §  91,  4.  419,  Didot's  ed. 

^  laiubulus  was  brought  es  iroAiv  Ua\i$o9pav...opTos  Se  (piWeWrivos 
Tov  ^aaiXews. — Diod.  Sic,  Bib.  Hist.,  II.  60.  Diodorus  and  Damas- 
cenus  were  cotemporaries  and  flourished  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
century  b.c,  and  the  earliest  part  of  the  first  century. 


APOLLONIUS   OF  TYANA.  61 

he  does  not  name  the  Indians,  in  enumerating  the  great 
deeds  of  Alexander  narrates  that  by  his  means  Asia  was 
civilised  and  Homer  read  there,  and  that  the  children^^ 
of  Persians,  Susians,  and  Gedrosians  sang  the  tragedies 
of  Euripides  and  Sophocles.  Dio  Chrysostom,^^  cotem- 
porary  with  Plutarch  and  a  friend  of  ApoUonius,  in  a 
panegyric  upon  Homer  insists  upon  his  wide-spread 
reputation ;  that  he  lived  in  the  memory  not  only  of 
Greeks  but  of  many  of  the  barbarians ;  "  for  his  poems 
it  is  said  are  sung  by  the  Indians,  who  have  translated 
them  into  their  own  language ;  so  that  a  people  who  do 
not  contemplate  the  same  stars  as  ourselves,  in  whose 
heaven  our  polar  star  is  not  visible, — are  not  unac- 
quainted with  the  grief  of  Priam,  and  the  tears  and 
wailings  of  Hecuba  and  Andromache  and  the  courage 
of  Achilles  and  Hector."  ^lian,  of  about  the  same  age 
as  Philostratus,  tells  us  that  not  only  the  Indians  but 
the  kings  of  Persia  also  have  translated  and  sung  the 
poems  of  Homer,  "if  one  may  credit  those  who  write  on 
these  matters."^^  On  such  vague  authority,  coupled 
doubtless  with  the  fact  that  an  Indo-Greek  kingdom  had 
formerly  existed  and  had  at  one  time  extended  to  the 
Jumna,  and  that  barbaric  kings  so  honoured  Greece 
that  on  their  coins  they  entitled  themselves  Philhel- 
lene,^*  Damis  built  up  this  part  of  his  romance,  which 
flattered  Greek  prejudices  and  soothed  Greek  vanity 
and  was  willingly  received  by  that  influential  and  edu- 

31  Kot  nep<T«i'  Kai  "Siovaiavuv  nai  Ted^uaicDV  rroiSes   ras  Evpimdoo  nai 
2o<l)0«Aeouv  TpuyuSias  JiSoy,  ut  supra. 

='2  De  Houiero  Oratio,  LIII,  277;  II,  Eeiske. 

33  VarisB  Hist.,  L.  xii,  c.  48. 

84  Bayer  Keg.  Greec.  Bactriani  Hist.,  p.  117. 


62  TRAVELS   OF  APOLLOXIUS. 

cated  class  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  and  who  were 
struggling  to  give  new  life  and  energy  to  the  perishing 
religion  of  Greece. 

Of  Damis's  geography  I  can  only  say  that  it  reminds 
me  of  a  fairy  tale.  As  soon  as  he  leaves  the  well- 
known  scene  of  Alexander's  exploits,  he  crosses  moun- 
tains unknown  to  any  map,  and 'then  describes  an 
immense  plain  of  fifteen  days'  journey  to  the  Ganges 
and  eighteen  days  to  the  Eed  Sea,  but  which  he  himself 
travels  over  in  fourteen  days;  for  in  four  days  he 
reaches  the  hill  of  the  Sophoi,  and  thence  in  ten  days 
arrives  at  the  one  mouth  of  the  Hyphasis.  Who  shall 
explain  these  discrepancies,  account  for  these  mistakes, 
and  fix  localities  thus  vaguely  described  ? 

Ee  vie  wing  the  whole  work  of  Philostratus,  it  seems 
to  me  that  Apollonius  either  pretended  or  was  believed 
to  have  travelled  through,  and  made  some  stay  in  India, 
but  that  very  possibly  he  did  not  really  visit  it ;  and 
that  if  he  did  visit  it,  our  Damis  never  accompanied  him, 
but  fabricated  the  journal  Philostratus  speaks  of,  for  it 
contains  some  facts,  from  books  written  upon  India  and 
tales^^  current  about  India  which  he  easily  collected  at 
that  great  mart  for  Indian  commodities  and  resort  for 
Indian  merchants — Alexandria. 

36  Traceable  to  the  same  sources  as  those  from  whicli  Dio  Chry- 
sostom  obtained  bis  stories  about  India.  In  his  oration  to  tlie 
people  of  Alexandria,  he  speaks  of  Bactrians,  Scythia,ns,  Persians, 
and  a  few  Indians  {IvSoov  Tivas),  as  frequenting  their  city  (Ih.,  I,  p. 
672) ;  and  as  authority  for  his  Indian  tale  to  the  Celaeni,  he  gives : 
Tti'es  TCttv  acpiKUovfievoou  tcpaaaw  atpiKVowrai  Se  ov  iroWoi  Tives  ejunopiai 
€VfK€u.  ovToi  Se  tni/j.i'yvvvTai  rois  irpos  QaXarrrj-  rovio  5e  UTifiov  farev 
Ifdcov  TO  yevos,  ot  re  aAAoi  ^l/syovaiv  avrovs. — II,  72,  p.  3. 


ON   THE 

INDIAN  EMBASSY  TO  AUGUSTUS. 


ON 

THE  IJSTDIAK  EMBASSY  TO  AUGUSTUS. 


NicoLAUS  Damascenus,  in  a  fragment  preserved  by 
Strabo,^  relates  that  at  Antiocli  Epidapbne  he  fell  in 
with  three  Indian  ambassadors,  then  on  their  way  to 
the  court  of  Augustus.  They  were,  as  their  letter 
showed,  the  survivors  of  a  larger  embassy,  to  the  other 
members  of  which  the  length  of  the  journey  principally 
had  proved  fatal.^  Their  letter  was  written  on  parch- 
ment {Bccjidepay  and  in  the  name  of  Porus  and  in  Greek. 

1  Geograph.  India,  1.  xv,  c.  I,  73,  also  Damasceni,  Frag.  91  j  Frag. 
Hist.  Grsec,  iii,  v,  p.  419,  Didot. 

^  Oyy  €K  fx(ur7}S  (TTi(rro\7]S  irKeiovs  SrjKovffdat,  (rco6r]vai  Se  rpets  fxovovs  ovs 
tdiiv  <p7}ai,  rovs  5'aAAous  viro  fxrjKovs  tcov  odcou  Sia<pdapr]vai  ro  ir\€ov.  Ut 
supra.  Similarly  of  the  six  or  seven  hundred  sent  by  Kublai  Khan 
with  the  Polos  to  conduct  his  daughter  to  the  Prince  of  Persia 
only  eight  reached  their  destination.  "  Et  sachiez  sans  faille  que 
quand  ils  entrerent  en  mer,  ils  furent  bien  vi  cent  personnes  sans 
les  mariniers.  Tous  morurent,  qu'il  n'en  eschapa  que  viii."  Marco 
Polo,  c.  xxiii,  30,  p.  1,  ed.  Pauthier;  all  but  eighteen,  ed.  Soc. 
Geog.  Six  hundred  of  the  crew  died,  of  the  three  ambassadors 
only  one  survived,  whilst  of  the  women  only  one  died.— Ed.  Mars- 
den,  p.  24. 

8  Ext  Se  Kat  ro  Kar*  cjue,  iroWoi  tu)V  ^apfiapoov  fs...Si(p6€pa5  ypatpovai. 
Herodotus,  v,  58.  As  materials  used  for  writing  on  in  India, 
Eeinaud,  Mem.  sur  I'lnde,  p.  305,  mentions  barks  of  trees  in  the 
north  and  palm  leaves  in  the  south.  Heeren,  Hist.  Ees.,  II,  107, 
on  the  authority  of  Paolino,  adds  to  these  cotton.  Dr.  Rost's  rice 

F 


66  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

It  set  forth  tliatPonis,thoTigli  lord  over  six  hundred  kings, 
much  valued  the  friendship  of,  and  was  ready  to  open 
his  dominions  to,  Caesar,  and  to  assist  him  on  all  just 
and  lawful  occasions.*  The  presents  they  brought  with 
them  were  in  the  charge  of  eight  well-anointed  slaves 
naked  all  but  their  girdles,  and  consisted  of  a  youth 
whose  arms  had  been  amputated  at  the  shoulders  in 
childhood,  a  sort  of  Hermes,  some  large  vipers,  a  snake 
ten  cubits  long,  a  river  tortoise  of  four  cubits,  and  a 
partridge  somewhat  larger  than  a  vulture.  With  the 
ambassadors  was  that  Indian,  who  burned  himself  at 
Athens — not  to  escape  from  present  ills,  but  because, 
hitherto  successful  in  everything  he  had  undertaken,  he 
now  feared,  lest  any  longer  life  should  bring  him  misery 
and  disappointment;  and  so  smiling,  naked  and  per- 
fumed, he  leaped  into  the  burning  pile.  On  his  tomb 
was  placed  this  inscription : — 

"Here  lies  Zarmanochegas,  of  Bargosa,  who  according 
to  the  ancestral  custom  of  the  Hindus  gave  himself  im- 
mortality."^ 

In  this  narrative,  the  king  of  kings  Porus,  the  Greek 

paper  j  while  Hiouen  Tlisang  intimates  that  in  his  time  the  Tala 
leaf  was  generally  used.  "  Les  feuilles  des  Tala  (Borassus  flabel- 
liformis)  sont  longues,  larges,  et  d'une  couleur  luisante.  Dans 
tous  les  Eoyaumes  de  I'lnde  il  n'y  a  personne  qui  n'en  recueille 
pour  ecrire,"  iii,  v,  p.  148.  On  the  whole  I  very  much  doubt  if  the 
Hindus  ever  wrote  on  parchment  or  any  prepared  skin.  Dr.  Eost, 
librarian  of  the  India  House,  knows  of  no  Hindu  parchment  MSS. ; 
and  of  no  MSS.  more  than  five  hundred  years  old. 

^  Kot  6T0//X0S  eiTj  hio^ov  7€  7rap6X€Ji',  OTTTj  jSouAerat,  nai  av/xirpaTTeiv  baa 
KaXcDs  6X^''     ^^  supra. 

5  Zapfiavoxvyc-^  Ij'Sos  avo  Bapyocrris  Kara  ra  irarpia  Ii'bwv  edr}  kavrov 
aTTaflaj'aTtcras  Kurtm.     MS. 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  67 

letter,  the  beggarly  presents  better  suited  to  a  juggler's 
booth  than  to  the  court  of  a  great  sovereign,  strike  us 
with  surprise  ;  and  we  ask  whether  an  Indian,  or  what 
purported  to  be  an  Indian  Embassy,  and  such  an  em- 
bassy as  described  by  Damascenus,  ever  presented  itself 
to  Augustus,  and  by  whom  and  from  what  part  of  India 
it  could  have  been  sent  ? 

To  this  Indian  Embassy,  Horace,  a  cotemporary,  in 
more  than  one  ode,  exultingly  and  with  some  little  ex- 
aggeration aUudes  f  and  to  it  Strabo  almost  a  cotempo- 

6  Carmen  Seculare,  55,  56  (written  about  17  B.C.) ;  Ode  14,  L.  iv, 
(13  B.C.),  and  Ode  12,  L.  i  (22  B.C.  according  to  Bentley,  19  B.C. 

according  to  Donatus)  where  he  speaks  of  "  Subjectos Seres  et 

Indos."  Who  the  Seres  were  I  do  not  know ;  Eeinaud,  however, 
will  have  them  to  be  the  Chinese.  Indeed,  in  a  series  of  papers  on 
the  Relations  between  Eome  and  India,  the  first  of  which  appeared 
in  the  Journal  Asiatique  for  March,  1863,  and  the  whole  of  which 
have  been  subsequently  published  in  a  separate  form,  he  argues 
that  between  the  two  countries  considerable  political  and  commer- 
cial intercourse  existed  already  in  the  reign  of  Augustus.  And  in 
support  of  his  view  he  cites  from  TibuUus,  Propertius,  Virgil, 
Horace,  etc.,  passages  which  with  one  exception  are  so  general 
that  they  surely  are  but  as  Sibylline  prophecies  or  poetic  aspira- 
tions. The  one  exception  I  allude  to  is  the  3  EL,  B.  iv,  of  Proper- 
tius, which  purports  to  be  the  letter  of  a  wife  Arethusa  to  her 
husband  Lycotas,  a  soldier,  whose  continued  absence  she  deplores. 

Te  modo  viderunt  iteratos  Bactra  per  ortus 
Te  modo  munito  Sericus  hostis  equo, 

Hybernique  Getae  pictoque  Britannia  curru, 
Ustus  et  Eoo  decolor  Indus  equo. 
But  as  the  armies  of  Augustus  never  passed  the  Euphrates,  it 
cannot  have  been  as  a  Eoman  soldier  that  Lycotas  traversed  and 
retraversed  Bactria,  and  surely  than  that  Lycotas,  as  Eeinaud  sug- 
gests, was  an  ambassador  from  Antony  to  Kanischka,  it  is  easier 
to  suppose  that  he  was  a  mercenary  Greek,  who  had  fought  in  the 
armies  of  the  Parthian  kings,  and  whose  adventures  had  been 
noised  in  Eome ;  and  easiest  of  aU  to  look  on  the  letter  as  without 


6S  THE   INDIAN  EMBASSY 

rary  a  second  time  refers/  when  in  opening  his  account 
of  India  he  laments  the  scantiness  of  his  materials;  that 
so  few  Greeks,  and  those  but  ignorant  traders  and  incap- 
able of  any  just  observation,  had  reached  the  Ganges ; 
and  that  from  India  but  one  embassy  to  Augustus  from 
one  place  and  from  one  king  Pandion  or  Porus  had 
visited  Europe.  Of  later  writers  who  mention  it,  Florus 
(a.d.  110,  17)  states  that  the  ambassadors  were  four 
years  on  the  road,  and  that  their  presents  were  of  ele- 
phants, pearls,  and  precious  stones";^  and  Suetonius 
(a.d.  120,  30)  attributes  it  to  the  fame  of  Augustus' 
moderation  and  virtues,  which  allured  Indians  and  Scy- 
thians to  seek  his  alliance  and  that  of  the  Eoman  peo- 
ple.^ Dio  Cassius  (a.d.  194)  speaks  of  it  at  length ;  he 
tells,  that  "at  Samos  (b.c.  22, 20)  many  embassies  came  to 
Augustus,  and  that  the  Indians,  having  before  pro- 
claimed, then  and  there  concluded,  a  treaty  of  alliance 

any  foundation  in  fact,  as  purely  imaginary  as  the  subject  Indians 
and  the  Seric  cavalry,  and  on  Lycotas  as  the  representative  of  the 
Eoman  armies,  and  their  achievements  past  and  to  come,  a  delicate 
flattery  of  the  courtly  Propertius. 

7  Ut  supra,  4,  c.  Kot  oi  vw  8e  e^  AiyvKriov  irXiovrfs  efiiropiKoi  r^ 
NcjAqu  KOI  T^  Apa^Kf  koXttw  ju^xpt  ttjs  lvZiKr)S  airavioi  /xcv  kui  •jr€pnr\€vKacri 
fi^XP^  ''■"i'  Vwyyov,  Kai  ovroi  5'  ibiwrat  Kai  ovdev  irpos  taroptav  twv  tottuv 
XP'?o't)UOi,  KaK^iB^v  S'  a<^'  kvos  Toirov  Koi  Trap'  euos  fiaaiXeus  TlavSiovos  Kai 
aWov  (77  Kar'  aWovs,  Groskurd)  Tlwpov,  t]KiV  oos  Kaiaapa  tov  '2,il3aaTov 
Soopa  Kai  Trpf(T0€ia  Kai  6  KaraKavaas  eavrov  AOrjVTjcri  aocpiaJTjs  IfSos,  Kada- 
irep  6  KaXavos  AAe^ai  Spa)  ttjj'  ToiavTTfu  deav  eTridei^afxeuos. 

5^  Hist.  Eom.,  iv,  c.  12,  ad  calcem  "  Indi  cum  gemmis  et  marga- 
ritis  elephantes  quoque  inter  munera  trahentes  nihil  magis  quam 
longinquitatem  vise  imputabant  quam  quadriennio  impleverant." 

9  Augustus,  c.  21.  "  Qua  virtutis  moderationisque  fama,  Indos 
etiam  ac  Scythas  auditu  modo  cognitos  pellexit  ad  amicitiam  suam 
populique  Eomani  ultro  per  legates  petendam.'* 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  69 

with  liim  ;^^  that  among  their  gifts  were  tigers  now  seen 
for  the  first  time  by  Eomans  and  even  Greeks,  and  a 
youth  witliout  arms  like  a  statue  of  Hermes,  but  as  ex- 
pert with  his  feet  as  other  people  with  their  hands,  for 
with  them  he  could  bend  a  bow,  throw  a  javelin,  and 
play  the  trumpet."  Dio  then  goes  on  to  say  that  "  one 
of  the  Indians,  Zarmaros,  whether  because  he  was  of  the 
Sophists  and  therefore  out  of  emulation,  or  whether  be- 
cause he  was  old  and  it  was  the  custom  of  his  coun- 
try, or  whether  as  a  show  for  the  Athenians  and  Au- 
gustus who  had  gone  to  Athens,  expressed  his  deter- 
mination of  putting  an  end  to  his  existence.  And  having 
been  first  initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  the  two  Gods^^ 
held  out  of  their  due  course  for  the  initiation  of  Augus- 
tus, he  afterwards  threw  himself  into  the  burning  pile." 
Hieronymus  (a.d.  380)  in  his  translation  of  the  Canon 


10  Hist.  Eom.,  L.  9,  58,  p.  ii,  Bekker  A.  Y.  734.  b.c.  18. 
Augustus  being  then  in  Samos,  UaixiroKXai  St?  irpca^eiai  irpos  avrov 
atpiHOVTo,  Kai  ol  IvSoi  TtpoKripvKivaajXiUoi  irponpov  (piXiav  roSe  eaireicravTO, 
Swpa  irefxr^avTes  aAAa  re  Kai  riypeis,  irpcorou  tot6  tois  PwixaioLs,  i/ofxi^oo 
5'  OTi  Kai  Tois  EWrjaiv,  o<pdei(rai'  Kai  ri  Kai  fieipaKiou  ot  av€v  wuwp,  olovs 
Tovs  'Ep/Jias  dpcofiev,  fSooKaV  Kai  ^ivroi  toiovtov  bv  €K€it'o  es  iravra  rois 
■nocTiv  are  Kai  x^pTiv  exprjro,  to^ov  t6  avTOis  evereive  Kai  fi€\T]  tjcpiei  Kai  eaa\- 
iri^eu...'Ypa(pa}  yap  \€yofAeva...(is  d' ovv  rctv  ludwu  Zapinapos...€iTe  Kai  es 
eniSei^iv  Tov  5e  Avyvrrrov  Kai  rcou  A9r]uaicou  {Kai  yap  eKeicrcu  r]\6ev)  airo- 
daveiv  fQe\7](Tas  c/jLv-qOr}  re  ra  roiu  6eoiu,  rcov  fxv(7rr)pia}u  Kanrep  ouk  ev  rep 
Kad7}K(iuri  Kaipo),  ws  (paai,  5ta  rov  hvyvarov  Kai  avrov  fjieixvrjfxeuovyevopLevuv, 
Kai  TTvpi  kavrov  ^oivra  e^eScoKev. 

11  Suetonius,  without  going  into  detail,  casually  confirms  this 
initiation  of  Augustus  at  Athens,  ^'Namque  Athenis  initiatus,  &c.," 
Aug.  c.  93.  But  allowing  that  Augustus  was  initiated  at  Athens  at 
this  time,  it  does  not  follow  that  this  Hindu  was  initiated  with 
him,  though  such  an  initiation  would  be  no  impossible  proceeding 
in  a  Buddhist  priest. 


70  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

Chronicon  of  Eusebius^^  just  notices  an  Indian  Embassy 
to  Augustus/^  but  places  it  in  the  third  year  of  the 
188th  Olympiad,  or  B.C.  26.  And  Orosius,  a  native  of 
Tarragona  (early  part  of  the  5th  century)  relates/*  that 
"an  Indian  and  a  Scythian  Embassy  traversed  the  whole 
world,  and  found  Caesar  at  Tarragona,  in  Spain ;"  and 
with  some  rhetorical  flourish,  then  observes,  "  that  just 
as  in  Babylon  Alexander  received  deputations  from 
Spain  and  the  Gauls,  so  now  Augustus  in  the  furthest 

12  I  have  not  cited  Eusebius,  because,  in  Mains*  and  Zohrab's 
edition  of  his  Canon  Chronicon  founded  on  an  old  Armenian  ver- 
sion, there  is  no  allusion  whatever  to  our  embassy.  I  observe  also 
that  Scaliger's  edition  makes  the  same  double  and  confused  men- 
tion of  it,  and  in  the  very  same  words  that  does  George  the  Syn- 
cell's  Chronographia,  from  which  Scaliger  largely  borrowed.  Know- 
ing then  how  Scaliger  made  up  his  edition  of  the  Canon  Chron.,  I 
suspect  that  even  supposing  a  notice  of  our  embassy  in  the  original 
work,  and  this  is  doubtful  (Mains'  Pref.,  xviii),  such  a  notice 
could  not  well  have  existed  in  the  shape  in  which  it  now  appears. 
For  Georgius  and  Scaliger's  Canon  Chronicon  under  the  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-eighth  Olymp.,  state,  rare  Kai  UavSiav  6  ro>v  Ivdwv 
/BaatXeus  cirfKVpvKevaaro  (}>ihos  AtryvaTov  yeveadai  (/cat  ai/ju/xoxoj) ;  then 
going  back  to  the  hundred  and  eighty-fifth  01.  (40-36  e.g.),  each 
tells  of  the  death  of  Antony  and  the  capture  of  Lepidus,  and  how 
Augustus  then  became  sole  emperor,  and  how  the  Alexandrians 
compute  the  years  of  Augustus,  and  then  adds  UavSicov  6  rcov  IvSav 
^aai\ev5  (f>i\os  AxryvaTov  Kai  avfiimaxos  irpea/SeueTat.  Georg.  Syncellus 
Byzant.  Hist.  Niebuhr,  588-9,  ih. 

13  Indi  ab  Augusto amicitiampostularunt,  188th  01ym.(Migneed  ) 
1*  Interea  Csesarem  apud  Tarraconem  citerioris  Hispaniae  urbem 

legati  Indorum  et  Scytharum  toto  orbe  transmisso  tandem  ibi  in- 
venerunt,  ultra  quod  quserere  non  possent,  refuderuntque  in 
Csesarem  Alexandri  Magni  gloriam  ;  quern  sicut  Hispanorum  Gal- 
lorumque  legatio  in  medio  Oriente  apud  Babylonem  contempla- 
tione  pacis  adiit,  ita  hunc  apud  Hispaniam  in  Occidentis  ultimo 
supplex  cum  gentilitio  munere  eous  Indus  et  Scytha  boreus  oravit. 
— Orosius,  Hist,  vi,  c.  xii. 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  71 

west  was  approached  with  gifts  by  suppliant  Indian 
and  Scythian  Ambassadors."  From  these  authorities,  I 
think  we  may  safely  conclude,  that  an  Indian  Embassy, 
or  what  purported  to  be  an  Indian  Embassy,  was  received 
by  Augustus. 

But  while  we  allow  that  our  authorities  are  ap- 
plicable to  or  certainly  not  irreconcilable  with  Damas- 
cenus'  embassy  which  Augustus  received  at  Samos,  22-20 
B.C. ;  we  cannot  but  observe  that  St.  Jerome's  is  referred 
to  the  year  26  B.C.  and  that  Orosius  brings  it  to  Tarragona, 
whither  Augustus  had  gone  27  B.C.,  and  where  he  was 
detained  tiU  24  B.C.  by  the  Cantabrian  war.  Hence  a 
difficulty,  which  Casaubon  and  others  have  endeavoured 
to  remove  by  assuming  two  Indian  Embassies  ;  the  one 
at  Tarragona  to  treat  of  peace,  the  other  at  Samos  to 
ratify  the  peace  agreed  upon.  But — ^not  to  mention 
that  this  preliminary  embassy  is  unknown  to  the 
earlier  writers,^^  who  all  so  exult  in  the  so-called  second 
embassy  that  they  scarcely  would  have  failed  to  notice 
the  first — I  would  first  remark  that  no  author  whatever 
speaks  of  two  Indian  Embassies.  And  I  would  secondly 
refer  to  the  ambassadorial  letter  of  which  Damascenus 
has  preserved  the  contents,  and  in  which  we  find  no 
allusion  to  any  previous  contract  or  agreement  between 
the  two  sovereigns,  but  simply  an  offer  on  the  part  of 
the  Hindu  prince  to  open  his  country  to  the  subjects 


^5  I  do  not  overlook  the  irpoKrjpvKevcrafievoi  irporepov  ^i\iav  rare 
effirfiaavTo  of  Dio  Cassius.  But  is  it,  looking  at  the  context,  possible 
to  conceive  that  those  irpoKrjpvKevffafxfvoi  were  other  than  those  who 
T0T6  fcireiaavro,  and  who  were  at  Antioch  22  B.C.  and  who  then 
probably  gave  notice  of  their  mission  by  herald  ? 


72  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

and  citizens  of  Eome  in  the  person  of  Csesar.  Surely- 
then,  than  this  embroglio  of  embassies  which  come  to 
sue  for  peace  where  war  was  impossible,  it  is  more 
natural  to  suppose  that  Jerome  a  careless  writer^^  mis- 
dated his  embassy ;  and  that  Orosius,  a  friend  and 
pupil  of  Jerome,^'^  finding  that  the  date  in  Jerome 
tallied  with  Caesar's  expedition  to  Spain,  seized  the 
opportunity  both  of  illustrating  his  native  town  and  of 
instituting  a  comparison  between  Augustus  and  Alex- 
ander the  Great.  I  think  we  may  rest  content  with 
one  embassy. 

But  is  Damascenus'  account  of  this  embassy  a  trust- 
worthy and  faithful  account  ?  Strabo  evidently  gives 
credit  to  it,  and  to  some  extent  confirms  it  by  stating 
that  the  Hermes  he  himself  had  seen  {ov  Kai  r)fjLec<; 
eiBofiev) ;  and  in  another  place,  while  he  attributes  our 
embassy  to  a  Pandion  rather  than  a  Porus,  he  still 
connects  it  with  the  Indian  who  burned  himself  at 
Athens.^^  Plutarch  (a.d.  100,  10)  in  noticing  the  self- 
cremation  of  Calanus  Alexander's  Gymnosophist  adds, 
that  many  years  afterwards  at  Athens  another  Indian 
in  the  suite  of  Augustus  similarly  put  an  end  to  his 
life,  and  that  his  monument  is  still  known  as  the 
Indian's  tomb.^^  Horace,  Florus,  and  Suetonius,  give 
indeed    another    character    and   other  objects  to   the 

16  *f  Propter  festinationem  quam  ipse  in  Chronici  prsefatione 
fatetur.*' — Maius,  Can.  Chron.  Prsef.  xix. 

17  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek  and  Eom.  Biog.,  Art.  Orosius. 

18  Vide  supra,  note  7. 

19  TouTo  iToWois  €T€<riv  varepov  aWos  IvSos  ev  Adrjuais  Kaiaapi  avvuv 
eiroiriaeu  Kai  deiKvmai  fxexpi  vvv  to  fiviifi.iiov  Iv^ov  KaAovfAfVoy.  Alex- 
andri  vita,  vitse  iii,  p.  1290. 


TO   AUGUSTUS.  73 

embassy,  but  write  too  loosely  to  be  authorities  for  any 
fact  not  reconcilable  with  the  narrative  of  Damascenus. 
With  that  narrative  Dio  Cassius,  too,  in  the  main 
agrees ;  but  as  he  specifies  tigers,  a  truly  royal  gift,^^ 
and  unknown  to  Damascenus,  as  among  the  Indian 
presents,  he  gives  us  an  opportunity  of  testing  his  and 
Damascenus'  accuracy.  For  he  af&rms  that  the  tigers 
of  the  embassy  were  the  first  ever  seen  by  Eomans. 
Now  Suetonius  mentions  it  as  a  trait  of  Augustus,  that 
he  was  ever  so  ready  to  gratify  the  people  with  the 
sight  of  rare  or  otherwise  remarkable  animals,  that  he 
would  exhibit  them  "  extra  ordinem,"  out  of  due  course 
and  on  ordinary  days,  and  that  in  this  way  he  exhibited 
a  tiger  on  the  stage.^^  And  Pliny  states  that  "  a  tame 
tiger"  (and  other  than  tame  tigers  our  ambassadors 
would  scarcely  carry  about  with  them)  "was  shown  in 
Home  for  the  first  time  at  the  consecration  of  the 
Theatre  of  Marcellus  (the  in  scena  of  Suetonius)  in  the 
Nones  of  May  and  during  the  consulships  of  Q.  Tubero 
and  Fabius  Maximus,^^  or  in  the  year  11  B.C.,  i.e.  nine 
years  after  the  date  of  our  embassy,  hardly,  therefore, 

20  Suleiman  Aga  when  sent  by  the  Pasha  of  Bagdad  to  the  Go- 
vernor-General of  India  takes  as  presents  five  horses  and  four 
lions. — Castlereagh  Dispatches,  v,  193. 

21  "  Solebat  etiara  citra  spectaculorum  dies,  si  quando  quid  novi- 
tatum  dignumque  cognitu  advectum  esset,  id  extra  ordinem  quoli- 
bet  loco  publicare :  ut  rhinocerotem  apud  septa,  tigrim  in  scena, 
anguem  quinquaginta  cubitorum  pro  Comitio." — Augustus,  c.  43. 

22  Augustus  Q.  Tuberone,  Paulo  Maximo  coss.  iv.  Nonas  Maias 
TheatroMarcelli  dedicatione  tigrim  primus  omnium  Eomse  ostendit 
in  cavea  mansuefactum  :  Divus  vero  Claudius  simul  quatuor. — 
Plin.Hist.  Nat.,  viii,  25.  How  common  afterwards! — v.  Martial, 
viii,  1.  26,  Ep. 


74  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

a  tiger  presented  by  it.  The  evidence  of  Dio  Cassins 
on  this  point  is  then,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  unsupported, 
and  we  see  no  reason  to  believe  that  tigers  were  among 
the  Indian  gifts.  We  thus  find  the  account  of  Damas- 
cenus  confirmed  in  several  particulars,  and  in  none 
satisfactorily  impugned.  We  accept  the  Indian  Sophist, 
we  accept  the  Hermes,  we  accept  the  beggarly  presents, 
and  because  we  accept  so  much  we  accept  also  the 
Greek  letter,  and  the  Pandyan  or  Puru,  king  of  kings ; 
for  we  believe,  as  Strabo  also  evidently  believed, 
that  what  Damascenus  wrote,  he  wrote  from  his  own 
knowledge.  But  how  then  explain  what  is  so  at 
variance  with  our  established  notions  ? 

Lassen^^  in  that  great  Encyclopaedia  of  Hindu  litera- 
ture the  "Indische  Alterthumskunde",  evidently  struck 
by  the  good  faith  of  Damascenus'  narrative,  has  endea- 
voured to  smooth  down  the  difficulties  attached  to  it.  The 
six  hundred  subject  kings  he  sets  down  to  evident  exag- 
geration, but  he  identifies  the  Porus  of  the  embassy  with 
the  Paurava  king,  who  at  the  beginning  of  our  sera  on 
the  death  of  Kadphises  II  founded  an  independent  king- 
dom in  the  Western  Punjab.  Tliis  Prince  he  observes 
was  a  serpent-worshipper,  and  as  a  serpent-worshipper 
would  naturally  look  upon  the  sacred  reptile  as  a  fit  offer- 
ing to  a  brother  sovereign.  He  accounts  :  for  the  pre- 
sents, by  suggesting  that  the  more  valuable  of  them  the 
ambassadors  had  sold  on  the  road :  and  for  the  Greek 
letter,  by  supposing  that  it  was  obtained  from  some 
Greek  scribe,  and  substituted  for  the  royal  credentials.^* 

23  Indisclie  Alterthumskunde,  59,  60,  p.  iii. 

2^  Surely  the  Greek  legends  on  Indian  coins,  where  the  sove- 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  75 

This  explanation,  however  ingenious,  is  scarcely  satis- 
factory.    For, 

1st.  Even  supposing  that  our  ambassadors  had  pro- 
cured a  Greek  version^^  of  the  royal  letter,  yet  as  Damas- 
cenus  expressly  states  that  their  letter  was  in  Greek, 
not  translated,  it  follows  that  they  must  have  sup-  • 
pressed  the  original  and  substituted  for  it  what  may  or 
may  not  have  been  a  translation,  i.e.^  we  must  suppose 
them  guilty  of  the  gravest  crime  which  can  be  laid  to 
the  charge  of  ambassadors,  the  falsification  of  their  cre- 
dentials. 

2ndly.  Allowing  our  Porus  to  have  been  a  serpent- 
worshipper,  was  he  therefore  likely  to  approach  an  un- 
known ally  with  one  of  his  pet  gods,  and  such  a  god  \ 
as  an  offering  V-^  I  have  never  heard  that  the  old 
Egyptian  Pharaohs,  in  reciprocating  civilities  with  any 

reign's  name,  wWcli  could  not  have  been  copied  from  any  existing 
die,  is  found  with  its  proper  inflexions,  as  e.  g.  on  the  coins  of 
Azes  50  B.C.  BASIAEQZ  BASIAEHN  MEFAAOT  AZOT  (Wilson's  Ariana 
Antiqua,  325),  would  indicate  that  in  the  north-west  provinces  of 
India  the  Greek  language  was  not  utterly  forgotten :  and  if  we 
could  believe  that  our  embassy  came  from  the  Punjab,  we  would 
take  it  for  granted  that  its  Greek  letter  was  composed  there. 

25  Eubruquis,  a.d.  1250,  thus  speaks  of  the  royal  letter  which 
he  delivered  to  the  Tartar  king:  *' Afterwards  I  delivered  unto 
him  your  Majesty's  letters  with  the  translation  thereof  into  the 
Arabike  and  Syriake  languages.  For  I  caused  them  to  be  trans- 
lated at  Acori  into  the  character  and  dialect  of  both  the  rudo 
tongues." — Hakluyt,  1, 117.  But  the  Buddhist  priest  who  brings  a 
letter,  a.d.  982,  from  an  Indian  King  to  the  Chinese  Emperor 
delivers  it,  and  the  Emperor  orders  it  to  be  translated. — Eaits 
concemant  I'lnde,  tr.  du  Chinois,  Pauthier,  p.  73. 

26  Yet  Hadrian  consecrated  an  Indian  serpent  in  the  Olympion 
at  Athens,  ^paKoura  otto  IvSias  KoixiadfVTa  aviBrjKev.  —  Dio  Cassius. 
Xiphilinus  II,  p.  329,  Bekker. 


76  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

neighbouring  king,  ever  presented  him  with  some  well- 
grown  crocodile,  or  a  case  of  beetles  with  their  appro- 
priate garniture.  But  let  the  serpent  pass.  You  have 
still  to  account  for  the  vipers  and  the  tortoise.  And  if 
you  allege  in  apology  that  these  Avere  but  the  dregs  and 
refuse  of  a  once  richly  freighted  embassy,  and  that  all 
that  was  of  value,  the  pearls  and  spices,  had  been  sold : 
then  as  it  could  only  have  been  sold  under  the  pressure 
of  want,  you  have  to  show  that  under  the  circumstances 
the  pressure  of  want  was  probable.^^  Now,  though  the 
journey  before  our  ambassadors  was  long  and  perhaps 
dangerous,  it  was  over  no  strange  and  untrodden  coun- 
try, but  along  the  most  ancient  route  in  the  world,^  fre- 
quented by  caravans,  with  many  stopping-places  well 
known  and  at  ascertained  distances  f^  it  is  scarcely 
credible  then  that  they  should  set  out  otherwise  than 
provided  against  all  contingencies,  as  well  provided  at 
least  as  the  merchants  whom  they  probably  accompanied, 
and  scarcely  credible  that  they  should  have  actually 
suffered  from  want.  But  may  not  the  troubles  which 
then  harassed  the  Parthian  Empire  have  delayed  their 

27  The  French  expedition  from  Saigon  to  Shangai  left  June  5th, 
1866,  reached  Yunnan  Dec.  23rd,  1867,  and  Shangai  June  12th, 
1868.  They  took  two  years,  but  were  detained  at  Bossal  on  the 
Lower  Laos  four  months.  At  Yunnan  they  arrived  exhausted  and 
in  absolute  want, — instruments,  books,  every  thing  had  to  be 
abandoned.  At  Tonghenan  their  chief  died.  But  the  route  was  an 
unexplored  one. —  Saturday  Review,  Nov.  21,  1868,  p.  683. 

28  Arrian  speaks  of  a  Xiuxpopos  6Sos,  extending  evidently,  from 
the  context,  in  the  direction  of  India  through  Bactria. — Exped. 
Alexand.,  iii,  L.  c.  21. 

29  V.  Mansiones  Parthicse  Isidori  Characeni.  Geograph.  Minor 
iv,  Didot  ed.,  and  a  short  account  of  another  route  for  goods  in 
Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  vi,  xix. 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  77 

progress,  lengthened  their  journey,  and  thus  increased  its 
expenses  ?  Yes,  but  as  those  troubles  were  now  of  long 
standing,  they  appear  surely  rather  as  a  reason  against 
the  setting  out  of  the  embassy  than  as  one  for  its  miser- 
able plight  on  arrival. 

3rdly.  The  Paurava  Prince  to  whom  Lassen  would  as- 
cribe this  embassy,  obtained  his  throne  only  after  the 
death  of  Kadphises  II,  and  in  the  beginning  of  our  sera. 
And  as  Kadphises  conquered  India,  more  properly  the 
Punjab  and  Kabulistan,  according  to  Lassen  himself 
about  24  B.C.  and  died  about  10  b.c./^  and  as  our  em- 
bassy met  Augustus  at  Samos  22, 20  B.C.,  it  very  evidently 
could  not  be  the  embassy  of  the  Paurava  Prince.  And 
it  could  hardly  have  represented  either  Kadphises  or 
the  King  whom  Kadphises  dethroned;  because  it  is 
improbable  that  Kadphises  in  any  transaction  with  a 
foreign  sovereign  would  appear  disguised  under  a  Hindu 
name ;  and  very  improbable  that  either  the  king  who 
had  just  conquered  a  kingdom,  or  the  king  who  was  on 
the  point  of  losing  one,  should  occupy  himself  with  em- 
bassies not  of  a  political  but  of  a  purely  commercial 
character,  and  for  an  object  which  the  very  countries 
that  separated  him  from  Eome  rendered  impossible. 

^  Lassen  ut  supra,  ii,  p.  411,  corrected  by  note  8,  p.  813.  "Kad- 
phises wahrscheinlich  Indien  24  v.  Christi  G.  eroberte  und  etwa 
14  Jahren  nachher  starb."  Wilson,  Ariana  Antiqua  places  him, 
however,  "  not  earlier  than  the  commencement  of  the  Christian 
sera",  and  seems  to  have  misunderstood  Lassen  when  he  adds  that 
*'  Lassen  proposes  the  end  of  the  first  century  as  the  term  of  the 
kingdom  of  Kadphises,"  p.  353.  As  to  the  extent  of  his  dominions, 
Lassen  ib.  p.  818,  observes  "  Seine  Beinahme,  Beherrscher  der 
Erde,  macht  Anspriiche  auf  ein  ausgedehntes  Reich.  Diese  An- 
spriiche  miissen  auf  Kabulistan  und  das  Punjab  beschrankt  werden." 


78  THE  INDIAN    EMBASSY 

But  liow  tlien  account  for  all  that  surprises  us  in  this 
embassy  ? 

What  do  we  gather  from  Damascenus'  narrative  ? 

I.  He  met  our  ambassadors  at  Antioch  Epidaphne. 
Now  Antioch  Epidaphne  is  so  situated  that  it  is  just  as 
probable  they  arrived  there  on  the  road  to  Greece  from 
the  western  coast  of  the  Indian  Peninsula,  either  by 
way  of  the  Red  Sea  and  Alexandria  or  the  Persian 
Gulf  and  the  Euphrates,  as  by  the  mid- Asiatic  route 
and  from  the  Punjab. 

II.  Damascenus  speaks  of  a  native  of  Bargosa  as  accom- 
panying or  attached  to  the  embassy,  and  though  he 
states  that  the  ambassadorial  letter  was  written  in  the 
name  of  Porus,  Strabo  rather  attributes  it  to  a  Pandion : 
and  as  Barygaza  is  a  trading  town  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Nerbudda  on  the  Indian  coast,  and  Pandya  a  kingdom 
extending  along  the  Western  shores  of  the  Indian 
Peninsula,  to  the  Western  coast  of  India  I  conclude 
with  Strabo  that  the  embassy  probably  belongs. 

III.  This  native  of  Bargosa  or  Barygaza,  Sanscrit 
Varikatcha  (Julien),  is  described  as  a  Hindu,  and  bears 
a  name  Zarmanos  Chegan,  Sanscrit  gramanakarja,^^  i.e., 
Teacher  of  the  Shamans,  which  points  him  out  as  of  the 
Buddhist  faith  and  a  priest,  and  as  his  death  proves  a 
priest  earnest  in  his  faith.  His  companions  then  were 
probably  Hindus  also,  and  perhaps  Buddhists  and  the 
representatives  of  a  Hindu  and  possibly  a  Buddhist 
prince. 

31  Lassen  ut  supra  iii,  p.  60.  Just  in  the  same  way  1  conclude 
that  Calanus  who  followed  Alexander  and  burned  himself  in  Persia 
was  a  Buddhist  as  well  from  his  willingness  to  leave  his  home  and 
his  death  as  from  his  conversation  with  Onesicritus. — Strabo,  xv. 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  79 

rv.  The  wretched  presents — the  Greek  letter — the 
sort  of  doubt  which  hangs  over  the  name  and  country  of 
the  prince,  are  all  indicative  not  of  the  sovereign  of  a 
great  kingdom,  hut  of  the  petty  raja  of  some  commercial 
town  or  insignificant  district. 

V.  The  presents  not  unsuited  to  the  tastes  of  Augus- 
tus, and  the  Greek  letter  and  its  purely  commercial 
tone,  indicate  that  our  embassy  was  planned  and  organ- 
ized by  Greek  traders,  and  more  for  Greek  than  Hindu 
interests. 

VI.  This  embassy  is  conceivable  only  under  the  sup- 
position that,  if  it  forwarded  the  interests  of  the  Greeks 
who  planned  it,  it  also  benefited  the  Hindu  prince  who 
was  induced  to  lend  it  his  name. 

But  who  was  this  Prince  ?  who  these  Greeks  ?  and 
what  their  common  interests  ?  The  prince  and  his  resi- 
dence we  are  unable  to  identify.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  reptiles  of  the  presents,  larger  indeed  in  Guzerat^^ 
but  common  to  the  whole  western  coast  of  India,  which 
can  enable  us  to  fix  on  the  locale  of  the  embassy.  If 
we  turn  to  the  name  of  the  prince,  we  find  that  he  is  a 
Porus  in  the  ambassadorial  letter,  but  had  become  Pan- 
dion  when  Strabo  wrote^^  and  the  Peninsula  was  better 


32  For  the  serpents  of  Guzerat  see  Forbes,  Oriental  Memoirs,  i, 
480 ;  for  the  partridges  of  the  Nerbudda,  the  black  kind  are  striking 
from  their  beauty,  none  remarkable  for  their  size,  id..,  501.  Might 
the  partridge  of  the  embassy,  large  as  a  hawk,  have  been  the 
jungle  fowl  which  Forbes  describes  as  having  something  of  the 
plumage  of  the  partridge  ? 

33  As  the  kingdom  of  Pandya  according  to  the  Periplus  Erith. 
Anony.  is  the  S.  Deccan  and  extends  from  Nelkunda,  Nelisuram,  to 
Komar,  Cape  Comorin  (§  54,  58,  Didot  ed.),  we  see  how  with  the 


80  THE   INDIAN   EMBASSY 

known.  A  Puru  of  the  Punjab  we  have  seen  that  in  all 
probability  he  was  not;  and  I  do  not  understand  how  he 
could  well  have  been  a  Pandyan  ;  because  Pandya  was 
a  great  and  powerful  sovereign  and  of  the  Saiva  faith,^* 
the  most  bigoted  of  the  Hindu  forms  of  religion,  and 
was  not  likely  therefore  either  to  have  initiated  a  com- 
mercial alliance  with  a  foreign  state,  or  to  have  initiated 
it  by  such  an  embassy  as  ours.  D'Anville  suggests  that 
he  was  a  Kana  of  Ougein  who  claimed  a  descent  from 
Porus.^^  But  surely  a  descent  from  Porus  real  or  pre- 
tended, is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  identify  our  prince, 
unless  it  can  be  shown  that  like  the  Pandyans  and  the 
Guptas  he  attached  to  his  own  name  that  of  his  ances- 
tors, used  it  as  a  family  name  and  in  all  public  docu- 
ments styled  himself  son  of  Puru.  Besides,  it  seems  to 
me  that  Ougein  is  too  far  inland  to  have  already  come 
into  direct  contact  with  Greek  traders,  and  to  have 
known  anything  of  Augustus  and  the  Eoman  Empire. 
To  recur  then  to  our  naiTative,  it  records' the  name  of 
one  Indian  town,  Bargosa  or  Barygaza.^^     And  in  the 

increase  in  the  direct  trade  the  name  Pandion  should  become 
better  known  at  Alexandria  than  that  of  Porus,  and  at  length 
take  its  place. 

34  The  prevailing  form  of  the  Hindu  religion  in  the  south  of  the 
Peninsula  was  at  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  era  and 
some  time  before  it,  most  probably  that  of  Siva.  Hist.  Sketch  of 
Pandya. — Wilson,  Journal  Eoy.  As.  Soc.  iii,  p.  204. 

35  Vincent's  Commerce  of  the  Antients,  ii,  407.  It  is  perhaps  as 
well  to  state,  that  from  a  Note  of  Wilson's  in  his  sketch  of  Pandya, 
it  seems  that  the  Aarivansa  and  Agni  Purana  make  Pandya  of  the 
line  of  Puru ;  but  that  as  he  is  not  so  specified  in  the  Vishnu 
Purana,  Wilson  is  of  opinion  that  "  his  insertion  is  the  work  of 
more  recent  authorities." — Journal  Roy.  As.  Soc.  iii,  'No.  1  note. 

s6  Barygaza  was  the  port  of  Ougein  and  may  have  belonged  to 


TO  AUGUSTUS.  81 

neighbourhood  of  Barygaza,  and  indeed  throughout  the 
Northern  part  of  the  Peninsula,  statues  and  temples  of 
Buddha  are  still  seen,  which  indicate  that  there  formerly 
Buddhism  was  certainly  recognised,  perhaps  flourished, 
and  was  on  the  ascendant.^''  Barygaza  besides  situated 
at  the  mouth  of  a  great  river  was  when  the  Periplus 
was  written  a  place  of  considerable  trade,  the  great 
and  legal  mart^^  for  the  commerce  of  the  West,  a  city 
therefore  which  would  probably  avail  itself  with  eager- 
ness of  any  opportunity  for  assuring  its  friendly  rela- 
tions with  its  great  customer,  Eome ;  and  to  it  I  should 
be  inclined  to  refer  our  embassy.  But  when  we  re- 
member that  Damascenus  miscalls  it,  and  that  Strabo 
copies  and  does  not  correct  him  and  never  himself 
notices  the  place,  we  may  well  doubt  whether  in  the 
times  we  are  speaking  of  it  was  frequented  by  Greeks, 
or  better  known  to  them  than  the  other  commercial 
ports   on  the  same  part  of  the  coast.^^     And  except 

it,  Epi  de  avrri  (Inest  huic  region!)  Kai  €|   avaroXris  ttoXis  Xeyofiivrj 

OfrjrTj  €v  7j  Kttt  ra  I3aai\€ia  irporepov  i)v,  act)  7]S  iravra €ts  Bapvya'^a 

Karacpeperai,  §  48. 

37  Forbes  in  tlie  plates  to  his  Oriental  Memoirs,  gives  a  statue 
of  Buddha  (he  calls  it  of  Paravant)  which  he  saw  at  Cambay,  and 
of  Buddhist  figures  on  columns  at  Salsette.  Hiouen  Thsang,  in 
noticing  the  state  of  Buddhism  in  Barygaza  and  Ougein,  speaks 
of  it  as  on  the  decline,  iii,  154,  as  flourishing  in  Guzerat,  i6.,  165, 
and  in  the  Konkan,  ih.,  147. 

88  Not  always  so.  The  Periplus  tells  us  that  KaWieva  (hodie 
Calliani  non  longe  a  Bombay  distans)  cTrt  twv  'S.apayovov  rov  trpea- 
fivTfpov  XPO^of'  €fji,iropiov  yevofievov.  fiera  yap  to  Karaax^^v  aim]v  l,av- 
SavTjv  €Kw\v6rj  eirt  ttoXu,  Kai  yap  ta  €K  ivxvs  fis  tovtovs  rovs  ronovs 
fiafiaWovTa  irXoia  'E\\7}viKa  fura  (pvKaKTjs  €is  Bapvya^a  €i<Tay€Tai.  §  ^ 
with  the  note. 

39  See  preceding  note. 

G 


82  THE  INDIAN  EMBASSY 

that  one  of  its  citizens  was  in  the  ambassadorial  suite, 
I  do  not  think  it  can  show  any  special  claim  to  our 
embassy. 

Who  our  Greeks  were  we  may  more  accurately 
determine.  After  the  destruction  of  the  Persian  Empire, 
the  two  great  Western  marts  for  the  produce  of  India 
were  Palmyra  and  Alexandria.  But  with  regard  to 
Palmyra — 

I.  Its  distance  from  the  Peninsula  of  India  was  too 
short,  and  the  route  through  the  Persian  Gulf  and  up 
the  Euphrates  too  direct  to  admit  of  a  journey  so  long, 
that  from  the  mere  time  it  occupied  as  hinted  by 
Damascenus  several  of  the  ambassadors  should  have 
died  on  the  road. 

II.  Palmyra  at  this  period  still  retained  its  national 
character  and  civilization  and  was  essentially  a  Syrian 
republic.  It  had  not  yet  merged  into  that  Graeco- 
Eoman  city  which  it  became  after  the  time  of  Trajan, 
and  which  its  ruins  and  the  legends  on  its  coins  and 
the  names  of  some  of  its  citizens  illustrate.*^  Greek 
and  Eoman  residents  it  no  doubt  admitted,  but 
they  could  have  been  neither  numerous  enough  nor 
powerful  enough  to  have  organised  and  forwarded  our 
embassy. 

III.  Paliiiyra,  situated  in  the  desert  some  eighty 
miles  from  the  Euphrates,  was  pre-eminently  an  inland 

^^  For  this  account  of  Palmyra  I  have  consulted  Pliny,  Hist. 
Nat.,  V,  21  j  Gibbon's  Eoman  Empire,  c.  xi,  vol.  i;  Heeren's  Manual 
of  Ant.  Hist.,  pp.  348,  57 ;  the  Art.  Zenobia,  Smith's  Gk.  and 
Eom.  Biog.  Diet.,  and  the  Articles  Palmyra  by  Fliigel,  and  Paliio- 
graphie,  iv,  by  Gesenius,  in  Ersch.  und  Griiber's  Encyclopedic. 


TO   AUGUSTUS.  83 

town.  Its  citizens  and  resident  strangers  were  mer- 
cliants,  warehousemen,  carriers,  agents,  but  they  as- 
suredly were  not  seafaring  men;  they  possessed  no 
ships,  and  received  the  produce  of  India  through  the 
Arabs,  whose  vessels  delivered  it  at  Sura  or  Thapsacus  ^ 
on  the  Euphrates  whence  it  was  brought  on  camels  to 
Palmyra.  They  neither  had  nor  could  have  any  direct 
intercourse  with  India,  and  without  such  an  intercourse 
our  embassy  is  not  conceivable. 

IV.  Palmyra  is  not  likely  to  have  encouraged  any 
Indian  embassy  to  the  Eoman  Emperor.  It  was  a  free 
city.*^  Its  inhabitants  had  not  forgotten  the  designs  of 
Antony  and  the  dangers  they  had  but  lately  escaped,'*^ 
and  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would  now  of  their 
own  free  will  call  Eoman  attention  to  their  wealth,  and 
place  the  Indians  from  whom  they  derived  it  in  direct 
communication  with  their  own  best  customers.  Througli 
Palmyra  this  embassy  could  not  have  made  its  way  to 
Augustus. 

We  turn  now  to  the  Greeks  of  Alexandria.  Alex- 
andria with  a  population  made  up  of  about  every 
nation  under  the  sun  was  essentially  a  Greek  city.     It 

*^  Palmyra — velut  terris  exempta  a  rerum  naturd  privatd  sorte, 
inter  duo  imperia  summa,  Romanorum  Parthorumque,  et  prima  in 
discordia  semper  utrumque  cura.  Plin.  ut  snpra — privata  sorte, 
sui  juris. 

^2  Antony  sent  out  a  body  of  cavalry  to  surprise  and  plunder 
Palmyra,  fUKpa  fxev  eniKaKcov  avrois,  6ti  VufiOLKav  Kai  Tlapdvaiuv  ov7es 
€(f)opioi,  es  (KUTcpovs  firiSf^icos  n-X^v,  efJLiropoi  yap  ovres  KOfxi^ovai  fxiv  e/c 
Tlfporujv  TO  Iv^iKO,  rri  Apa^ia  Siarid^vTai  5'  ev  rr)  Fufxaicov. — Appian  de 
Bell.  Civ.,  V,  ix.  Appian  attributes  this  expedition  to  a  desire  for 
plunder  only.  I  suspect  it  was  rather  undertaken  in  the  interests  '^ 
of  Alexandria. 


84-  THE   INDIAN  ExMBASSY 

carried  on  a  large,  profitable  and  increasing  trade  witli 
the  East.*^  And  though  at  the  period  of  our  embassy  its 
merchants  seldom  ventured  beyond  the  Arab  Ports  of 
Cane  and  Aden/*  where  they  traded  for  the  products 
and  manufactures  of  India,  they  nevertheless  occa- 
sionally sailed  for  the  Indian  Seas,  and  made  their  way 
even  to  the  Ganges.  And  as  they  then  interfered  with 
the  Arab  monopoly,  they  saw  themselves  every  where 
jealously  watched  and  opposed  by  the  Arabs,  every 
where  treated  as  interlopers,  and  had  every  where  to 
encounter  the  persecutions  of  an  excited  populace.*^ 
Only  in  some  of  the  smaller  and  therefore  neglected 
l^orts,  could  they  find  opportunity  and  permission  to 
trade.  And  then  how  eagerly  would  they  lay  before 
the  authorities  the  advantages  of  a  direct  trade !  They 
would  show  them  the  prices  asked  and  obtained  by  the 
Arabs  for  Hindu  and  Greek  commodities,  and  point  out 
how  of  the  profits  the  Arabs  carried  away  the  lion's 
share.  And  if  they  fell  in  with  some  Eajah  of  the 
Buddhist  faith — a  faith  without  the  prejudices  of  race, 
proselytising,  catholic — and  not  averse  to  travel,  they 
surely  would  easily  persuade  him,  as  in  after  times  the 
Eajah  of  Ceylon  was  persuaded,  to  further  and  attempt 

^3  Strabo  states  that  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  some  twenty 
ships  only  (xvii,  L.  i,  c.  130)  ventured  to  cross  the  Indian  seas, 
but  that  the  trade  had  so  greatly  increased  that  he  himself  saw  at 
Myos  Hormos  one  hundred  and  twenty  ships  destined  for  India, 
L.  ii,  V,  c.  12  §. 

44  Vincent's  Commerce  of  the  Antients,  ii,  53,  and  Periplus, 
C.27. 

45  Just  as  the  Arabs  stirred  up  the  populace  of  Calecut  against 
the  Portuguese  on  their  first  attempts  at  trade  in  Calecut.  Maffei, 
Hist.  India,  pp.  49,  52,  114 ;  conip.  p.  24. 


TO   AUGUSTUS.  85 

to  assure  the  direct  trade  by  an  embassy,  the  details  of 
which  a  small  Prince  would  willingly  leave  to  them. 

But  besides  this  commercial  interest  common  to  both 
peoples,  the  Greeks  of  Alexandria  had  an  interest  of 
their  own  in  getting  up  this  embassy.  In  the  great 
civil  war  but  just  concluded  they  had  been  partisans  of 
Antony,  they  had  fought  in  his  ranks  and  were  the 
last  to  yield  after  his  defeat.  They  had  to  conciliate 
the  favour  of  the  conqueror.  But  they  were  no  vulgar 
flatterers,  theirs  was  not  that  adulation  which  repeats 
ever  tlie  same  cuckoo  note  of  praise.  They  studied 
their  man  and  to  his  temper  and  character  adapted 
their  tone.  To  the  literary  Claudius  they  devoted  a 
new  room  in  their  Museum,*^  and  placed  his  works 
among  their  class-books.  The  theatre-circus-loving 
Nero  they  wheedled  by  hired  bands  of  artistic  claqueurs}'^ 
And  the  usurpation  of  the  plebeian  Vespasian  they 
sanctioned  by  endowing  him  with  miraculous  powers.**^ 

4S  Denique  et  Grsecas  scripsit  historias— Quarum  caussa  veteri 
AlexandriseMuseo  alterum  additum  exipsius  nomine ;  institutumque 
ut  quotannis  in  altero  Typprji'tfcwj/  liberi,  altero  Kapxri^oviaKwv,  diebus 
statutis,  velut  in  auditorio  recitarentur. — Suetonii  Claud.,  c.  42. 

'*'  "Captus  autem  modulatis  Alexandrianorum  laudationibus, 
qui  de  novo  commeatu  Neapolim  confluxerunt,  plures  Alexandria 
evocavit." — 16.,  Nero,  c.  20. 

48  Auctoritas  et  quasi  majestas  qusedam,  ut  scilicet  inopinato  et 
adhuc  novo  Principi  deerat :  hsec  quoque  accessit.  E  plebe  quidam 
luminibus  orbatus,  item  alius  debili  crure,  sedentem — adierunt, 
orantes  opem  valetudinis,  demonstratam  a  Serapide  per  quietem. 
Cum  vix  fides  esset — ideoque  ne  experiri  quidem  audiret,  hortan- 
tibus  amicis  palam  pro  concione  utrumque  tentavit,  nee  eventus 
defuit. — Id.y  Vespasianus,  c.  7.  Tacitus  gives  the  miracles;  but 
in  Tacitus,  Vespasian  is  only  mystified.  Hist.,  iv,  81.  Dio  Cassius, 
after  mentioning  the  miracles,  describes  the  disappointment  of 


86  THE   INDIAN   EMBASSY 

How  now  would  such  a  people  seek  to  win  over  tlie 
politic  Augustus  ?  Tliey  bring  to  liis  feet  tliese  Indian 
ambassadors,  and  thus  raise  him  to  a  rivalship  with 
Alexander.  That  he  was  too  wise  and  far-seeing  to  be 
himself  deceived  is  probable  enough,  but  is  no  valid 
objection.  What  cared  he  that  the  crown  was  of 
copper-gilt  and  the  robes  of  tinsel,  provided  that  the 
plaudits  were  real  ?  The  object  of  the  Alexandrians 
was  not  to  impose  on  him,  but  to  gain  his  favour  by 
enabling  him  to  impose  on  the  Eoman  people ;  and  that 
they  fully  succeeded  Eoman  history  sufficiently  testifies. 
In  conclusion,  I  thus  explain  and  account  for  our 
embassy.  In  the  Northern  half  of  the  Indian  Penin- 
sula Greek  merchants  in  their  intercourse  with  a 
Hindu  Eaja  often  press  upon  his  notice  the  greatness 
and  wealth  of  their  metropolis,  and  insist  upon  the 
advantages  which  he  and  his  country  would  derive 
from  more  intimate  commercial  relations  with  it.  They 
advise  an  embassy,  and  offer  a  passage  in  their  ship  for 
the  ambassadors  and  for  such  presents  as  they  can  con- 
veniently carry  and  he  conveniently  send.  The  Eaja 
is  persuaded.  In  due  course  the  embassy  arrives  at 
Alexandria,  and  for  Alexandria  only  it  may  have  been 
originally  intended.  But  the  Alexandrians  alive  to 
their  own  interests  quickly  forward  it  on  to  Augustus, 
and  give  it  weight  and  dignity  by  affixing  to  the  Greek 
letter  with  which  they  provide  it  a  well-known  and 
time-honoured  name.  The  presents  they  leave  un- 
changed,   aware    that    the    travel-worn    ambassadors, 

the  Alexandrians  who  expected  favour,  and  only  got  increased 
taxation. 


TO   AUGUSTUS.  87 

whose  home  is  so  distant  that  some  of  them  have  died 
on  their  way  to  Caesar,  will  impress  the  imagination 
more  strongly  than  heaps  of  barbaric  pearl  and  gold. 

While  I  offer  this  explanation,  I  do  not  pretend  that 
it  is  entirely  satisfactory,  "refutation-tight;"  enough  if 
it  seems  to  others  as  to  me,  less  improbable,  less  open 
to  objection,  more  simple  and  more  in  accordance  with 
the  facts  given,  than  others. 


ON  THE 

SECOND  INDIAN  EMBASSY  TO  EOME. 


ON   THE 

SECOND   INDIAN  EMBASSY  TO   EOME* 


The  second  Indian  embassy  to  Eome  was  tlie  result  of 
an  accident.  Pliny  tells  the  story  thus.  A  freedman 
of  one  Annius  Plocamus,  while  in  the  Eed  Sea  collect- 
ing the  tolls  and  customs  farmed  of  Claudius  by  his 
patron,  was  caught  in  a  gale  of  wind,  driven  past 
Carmania,  and  on  the  fifteenth  day  carried  into 
Hippuros,  a  port  of  Ceylon.  Here,  though  his  ship 
with  its  contents  seems  to  have  been  seized  and  confis- 
cated to  the  king's  use,^  he  himself  was  kindly  and 
hospitably  treated.  In  six  months'  time  he  learned  the 
language.  Admitted  to  familiar  intercourse  with  the 
king,2  in  answer  to  his  questions  to  told  him  of  Kome 

*  Pliny,  Nat.  Hist.,  vi.  24. 

^  Not  expressly  stated  in  tlie  text,  but  surmised  from  an  expres- 
sion subsequently  used,  "denarii  in  captiva  pecunia." — Pliny, 
Hist.  Nat.,  vi,  1,  c  24. 

2  So  Sopater,  and  the  Aditulani,  his  companions,  a.d.  500,  on 
tbeir  arrival  in  Ceylon  are  carried  by  the  chiefs  and  custom-house 
officers  to  the  king,  as  was  the  custom  :  Kara  to  iOos  ol  apxovres  km 
ol  rehwvai  Se^ajxevoi  tovtovs  aTro<}}€pov<Ti  nrpot  rov  /SacriAea.  Cosmas 
Indicop. ;  Montfaucon,  N.  Coll, ;  Patrum,  i,  p.  338.  So  of  Sinbad 
when  found  stranded  on  Ceylon,  "  the  people  talked  together,  and 
said  *We  must  take  him  with  us,  and  present  him  to  our  king.'" — 
Lane's  Arabian  Nights,  p.  70,  iii.  Of  this  custom,  however,  I  find 
no  trace  whatever  in  the  travels  of  Fa-hian,  early  part  of  fifth  cen- 
tury, or  of  Hiouen  Thsang,  seventh  century. 


92  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

and  of  Caesar.  In  these  conversations  and  from  some 
denarii  which  had  been  found  in  the  Eoman  ship,  and 
which  from  the  heads  upon  them  had  evidently  been 
coined  at  different  times  and  by  different  persons,  and 
which  nevertheless  were  all  of  the  same  weight,^  the 
Sinhalese  monarch  learned  to  appreciate  Eoman 
justice.  He  became  desirous  of  entering  into  alliance 
with  Eome,  and  for  that  purpose  sent  thither  one 
Eachias  with  three  other  ambassadors  from  whom  as  he 
intimates  Pliny*  derived  that  fuller  and  more  accurate 
information  with  respect  to  Ceylon  which  he  has  em- 
bodied in  his  Natural  History. 

They  stated  that  in  Taprobane  were  five  hundred 
towns  :^  that  in  the  south  was  situated  Palissemundus, 

3  The  next  time  we  hear  of  Eomans  at  the  Sinhalese  Court, 
Eoman  money  then,  as  now,  played  its  part.  It  seems  that  when 
Sopater  was  presented,  a  Persian  Ambassador  was  presented  with 
him.  The  Sinhalese  monarch,  after  the  first  salutations,  asked 
whose  was  the  most  powerful  sovereign.  The  Persian  hurried  on 
to  assert  the  wealth  and  superiority  of  the  great  king.  Sopater 
appealed  to  the  coins  of  both  people.  The  Eoman  money,  and 
Sopater  had  only  choice  pieces  with  him,  was  of  gold,  bright,  well 
rounded,  and  of  (a  musical  ring  ?)  Xafinpou,  ev/jLopcpov,  (vpoi^ov,  the 
Persian  was  of  small  pieces  of  silver.  The  king  examines  the  coins, 
and  decides  in  favour  of  the  Eomans,  who  he  declares  are  a  wise, 
illustrious,  and  powerful  people. — Cosmas  in  loc.  cit.  In  another 
place,  p.  148,  he  speaks  of  the  excellence  and  universal  use  of 
Eoman  money. 

*  "  Hactenus  a  priscis  memorata :  nobis  diligentior  notitia  ., 
Contigit  legatis  etiam  ex  insu  la  advectis...Ex  iis  cognitum". — 
Pliny,  u.  s. 

5  '*  An  evident  exaggeration'*,  says  Lassen,  "  but  one  fostered  by 
the  native  books".  Thus  the  Eajavalli  (Tennent's  Ceylon,  i,  422) 
gives  in  a.d.  1301  to  Ceylon  1,400,000  villages ;  but  as  the  same 
work  states  that  Dutugamini  built  "  900,000  houses  of  earth,  and 


EMBASSY  TO   KOME.  93 

the  capital,^  with  its  harbour  and  royal  residence  of  two 
hundred  thousand  inliabitants  -J  that  inland  was  a  lake, 
Megisba,  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  round, 
and  studded  here  and  there  with  grass  islands ;  and 
that  from  this  lake  two  rivers  issued,  of  which  the  one 
took  a  northerly  course  and  was  called  the  Cydara, 
while  the  other,  the  Palissemundus,  flowed  by  the  city 
of  that  name,  and  fell  into  the  sea  in  three  streams — 
the  broadest  fifteen,  the  narrowest  five  stadia  across. 
They  said  that  Cape  Coliacum  was  the  point  of  land 
nearest  to  India,  that  four  days'^  sail  from  it  was  the  Sun 

8,000,000  houses  whicli  were  covered  with  tiles." — (Upham,  Sacred 
Books  of  Ceylon,  p.  222,  iii),  and  this,  though  some  fifty  years  after 
a  forest  still  existed  at  the  gates  of  Anarajapura  (Mahawanso, 
p.  203),  the  authority  is  of  no  great  weight.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  with  Hamilton,  that  the  population  of  Ceylon  was  never 
greater  than  at  present. — Geog.  Desc.  of  Hindostan,  ii,  469. 

^  Cosmas,  sixth  century,  places  the  great  mart  and  harbour  in 
the  south.  Of  the  two  kings  of  the  island,  he  says  "  6  ets  exc^v  rov 
vaKivBov,  kai  ^repos  to  fxepos  ro  aWo  ev  cp  can  to  ffxiropiop  Kai  6  Ai/xTjf 
fjLcya  5e  eaTi  Kai  rcov  (Keiaiv  e/xiTopiov,  lb.  337.  Here  Sopater  probably 
landed.  Fa-hian,  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  and  Hiouen 
Thsang  on  the  other  hand,  celebrate  the  capital  of  the  Hyacin- 
thine  king ;  Fa-hian,  p.  334,  its  streets  and  public  buildings  and 
fine  houses ;  Hiouen  Thsang  its  viharas  and  their  wonders,  ii, 
143-4.  Marco  Polo,  thirteenth  century,  describes  the  hyacinthine 
stone :  •*  Et  si  a  le  roy  de  ceste  isle,  un  rubis  le  plus  bel  et  le  plus 
gros  qui  soit  en  monde  ;  et  vous  disay  comment  il  est  fait.  II 
est  long  bien  une  grant  paume,  et  bien  gros  tant  comme  est  gros 
le  bras  d'un  homme.  H  est  la  plus  resplendissant  chose  du  monde 
^  veoir ;  et  n'a  nulle  tache.  1\  est  vermeil  comme  feu." — p.  586, 
ed.  Pauthier. 

7  "Portum  contra  meridiem  appositum  oppido  Palissemundo, 
omnium  ibi  clarissimo  et  regiam  cc.  mille  plebis."— Pliny,  i,  1,  c. 

8  Hiouen  Thsang  relates,  that  when  he  first  heard  of  Ceylon,  he 
heard  also  that  to  reach  it  from  India  no  long  sea  voyage  was  ne- 
cessary, but  then  one  "  pendant  laquelle  les  vents  contraires,  les 


94  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

Island^  in  mid-cliannel,  and  tliat  the  sea  there  was  very 
green  and  full  of  trees/^  the  tops  of  which  were  often 
broken  off  by  the  rudders  of  passing  ships.  They  ad- 
mitted that  with  them  the  moon  was  only  visible  from 
the  eighth  to  the  sixteenth  day ;  and  while  they  won- 
dered at  our  Great  Bear  and  Pleiades  as  constellations 
of  another  heaven,  they  boasted  of  their  Canopus,  a 
great  and  brilliant  star.  But  what  of  all  things  most 
astonished^^  them  was  that  their  shadows  fell  in  the 
direction  of  our  and  not  their  hemisphere,  and  that  the 
sun  with  us  rose  on  the  left  and  set  on  the  right  hand, 
just  the  contrary  of  what  took  place  with  them.  They 
calculated  that  that  side  of  their  island  which  lies 
opposite  to  the  south-east  coast  of  India  was  ten  thou- 


flots  impetueux  et  Yakshas  demons  vous  exposeraient  a  mille  dan- 
gers. II  vaut  mieux  partir  de  la  pointe  sud-est  de  I'lnde  meri- 
dionale ;  de  cette  maniere  on  peut  y  arriver  par  eaux  dans  Tespace 
de  trois  jours." — Vie  et  Ouvrages  de  Hiouen  Thsang,  tr.  Julien,  p. 
183.  In  the  time  of  Ibn  Batuta,  1334,  between  Bakala  "on  the 
coast  of  Ceylon  and  the  Malabar  districts,  Coromandel  coast,  there 
is  a  voyage  of  one  day  and  one  night." — Travels,  p.  184. 

9  Identified  by  Tennent  with  the  Island  of  Delft. — Ceylon,  ii, 
550;  by  Vincent  with  Manaar  or  Eamana-KoU,  Periplus,  ii,  492. 

1*^  So  also  Megasthenes  describes  the  Indian  seas,  "  Meyaadepiju 
Se  rov  TU  IvSiKa  y€ypa<pQTa  iaropeiv  iv  rr)  Kara  rrjv  IuSiktju  QaKarrri 
Sevdpa  ^veaeai."—Fvsig.  Hist.  Gvudc,  ii,  p.  413,  1755.  The  sea  in 
these  parts  is  described  as  very  green  and  full  of  coral,  and  "  on 
the  purity  of  the  water  and  on  the  coral  groves  which  rise  in  the 
clear  blue  depths,"  Sir  Emerson  Tennent  {ut  supra,  p.  555)  dwells 
with  delight. 

^1  *' Septentriones.,.miraba7i<Mr...sed  maxime  mirum  iis.. .um- 
bras suas  in  nostrum  caelum  cadere."  This  "  mirabantur"  and 
"mirum  iis"  Windt  observes,  would  lead  one  to  suppose  that 
Pliny  had  himself  received  this  information  direct  from  the  inter- 
preter.— Windt,  Ceylon,  p.  103. 


EMBASSY  TO   EOME.  95 

sand  stadia,  or  about  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  in 
length.^2  xiiey  told  also  of  the  Seras,^^  who  dwelt  be- 
yond the  Montes  Emodi,  and  whom  the  father  of 
Eachias  had  visited,  and  who  would  trade  with  and 
show  themselves  to  their  people ;  they  described  them 
as  tall,  red-haired,^*  blue  eyed,  rough-voiced,  and  with 

^2  Onesicritus,  ov  SiopLo-as  firiKos  oi/Se  irXaros,  witliout  stating"  whe- 
ther he  refers  them  to  its  length  or  breadth,  estimates  Ceylon, 
says  Strabo  (xv,  I,  §  15)  at  five  thousand  stadia,  or  six  hundred 
and  twenty-miles.  Vincent,  however,  is  of  opinion  that  these  five 
thousand  stadia  were  intended  by  Onesicritus  as  the  measure,  not 
of  either  the  length  or  breadth  of  the  island,  but  of  its  circum- 
ference, six  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  which  they  not  very  inaccu- 
rately represent.  But  how  then  get  over  the  fact  that  Onesicritus 
places  Ceylon  at  twenty  days  sail  from  the  continent  ?  besides,  we 
we  have  no  evidence— I  put  aside  that  of  Solinus  (Polyhist.,  c.  53) 
— that  he  ever  visited  it,  and  he  must,  therefore,  like  Eratosthenes, 
have  derived  his  knowledge  of  it  from  the  Hindoos,  whose  fabulous 
accounts  of  its  size  obtained  so  late  as  the  days  of  Marco  Polo 
(Vincent,  ut  supra,  p.  499),  and  spread  even  to  China:  "Son 
etendue  du  nord  en  sud  est  d' environ  two  thousand  lis,"  i.  e.,  five 
hundred  miles. 

^3  In  his  fiftieth  chapter  Solinus,  borrowing  from  Pliny  (vi,  20), 
notices  the  leading  customs  of  the  Seres— and  as  they  are  the 
same  as  those  here  given  to  the  Serse,  and  as  the  names  of  the 
peoples  are  similar,  he  evidently  identifies  them,  for  in  his  chapter 
on  Taprobane  (53)  he  omits  as  superfluous  all  mention  of  the  Serse 
and  their  customs,  but  shows  their  neighbourhood  to  Ceylon  by 
observing  that  its  inhabitants  "  cernunt  latus  Sericum  de  mon- 
tium  suorum  jugis." 

1*  Solinus  u.  s.  applies  this  description  to  the  Sinhalese  them- 
selves, and  attributes  the  red  hair  to  a  dye,  "  crines  fuco  imbuunt.*' 
I  have  followed  my  text  and  given  it  to  the  Serse— thus  distinguish- 
ing them  from  the  Seres  of  Pliny,  whom,  if  Chinese,  this  description 
will  scarcely  suit — for  they,  the  Chinese,  call  themselves  the 
'*  Blackheads"  (Morrison's  tr.  from  the  Chinese  Official  Eeports, 
p.  28,  note),  and  of  them  black  hair  is  so  decided  a  characteristic 
that  Eemusat  somewhere  concludes  that  the  Japanese,  because 


96  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

no  intelligible  language.  In  other  respects  their  ac- 
counts tallied  with  those  of  our  own  merchants ;  as  that, 
e,g.,  in  trading  with  the  Serse,  the  merchant  crossed 
over  to  the  further  bank  of  one  of  their  rivers,  and, 
having  there  laid  out  his  merchandise,  retired.  The 
Seree  then  came  forward,  and  placed  opposite  it  such 
and  so  much  of  their  goods  as  they  deemed  it  worth, 
and  these  goods,  if  the  trader  was  satisfied,  he  took 
away,  and  the  bargain  was  concluded.^^ 

In  Ceylon  gold  and  silver  are  prized,  marble  varie- 
gated like  the  shell  of  the  tortoise  and  gems  and 
pearls  are  much  esteemed ;  slavery  is  unknown  ;^^  and 


their  hair  is  not  black  but  rather  of  a  deep  brown  blue,  must  be 
of  a  diflFerent  race. 

1^  So  Joinville  (As.  Ees.,  484,  ii)  describes  the  veddah  of  Ceylon: 
"When  he  wants  an  iron  tool  or  a  lance... he  places  in  the  night 
before  the  door  of  a  smith  some  money  or  game,  together  with  a 
model  of  what  he  requires.  In  a  day  or  two  he  returns  and  finds 
the  instrument  he  has  demanded.'*  See  also  Knox,  Hist.  Relations, 
pt.  II,  c.  i,  p.  123 ;  Eibeyro,  quoted  by  Tennent,  ii,  p.  593 ;  and 
Tennent's  Ceylon,  ii,  p.  437,  where  the  subject  is  exhausted. 
Matouanlin,  ut  supra,  p.  42,  ascribes  this  mode  of  barter  to  the 
demons,  the  primaeval  inhabitants  of  Ceylon :  "  lis  ne  laissaient 
pas  voir  leurs  corps,  et  montraient  au  moyen  de  pierres  precieuses 
le  prix  que  pouvaient  valoir  les  marchandises,"  and  borrows  its 
account  probably  from  Fa-hian,  who  writes  :  "  Quand  le  tems  de 
ce  commerce  etait  venu,  les  genies  et  les  demons  ne  paraissaient 
pas,  mais  ils  mettaient  en  avant  des  choses  precieuses,"  p.  332. 
Similar  modes  of  barter,  as  prevailing  on  the  Libyan  shore,  are 
described  by  Herodotus,  1.  iv,  c.  196  j  in  Sasus  on  the  African 
coast,  by  Indicopleustes,  ut  supra,  p.  139 ;  and  in  the  interior  of 
Africa  in  the  present  day,  by  Speke  (Adventures  among  the 
Somali,  June  or  July  number  of  Blackwood,  1860). 

16  So  Arrian,  of  India,  c.  x  :  "  Eti'at  5e  Kai  rode  fxeya  (v  tt?  Ivduv  7-77, 
Travras  IvZovs  eivai  €\iv6epov9,  ovde  riva  5ov\oy  eivai  lv5ov...AaKi8aifioviois 


EMBASSY  TO  HOME.  97 

no  man  sleeps  either  after  daybreak  or  during  the  day.^^ 
The  houses  are  low ;  ^^  the  price  of  corn  never  varies  ;^^ 
and  there  are  neither  courts  of  law  nor  law- suits.  Her- 
cules is  the  patron  god  of  the  island.  The  government 
is  an  elective  monarchy,  and  the  king  is  chosen  by  the 
people  for  his  age  and  clemency,  but  he  must  be  child- 
less ;  and  should  a  child  be  born  to  him  after  his  elec- 
tion he  is  obliged  to  abdicate,  lest  the  crown  should 
become  hereditary.^^  He  is  assisted  by  a  council  of 
thirty  also  chosen  by  popular  suffrage,  which,  but  only 
by  the  vote  of  an  absolute  majority,  has  the  power  of 
death ;  against  its  sentence  however  there  is  an  appeal 
to  the  people,  who  then  appoint  seventy  judges  specially 
to  try  the  case.  If  these  set  aside  the  judgment  of  the 
council  its  members  are  for  ever  deprived  of  their  rank 
and  publicly  disgraced.     For  his  faults  the  king  may  be 


fi€P  ye  oi  'EXoDTes  SouXoi  €iaiP...li^doiai  5e  owSe  aWos  dovKos  €«TTt,  ^17x0176 

IvSwV  TIS. 

1'  Not  probable.  See  Tennent's  description  of  mid-day,  ii,  pp. 
255-6. 

18  So  ^lian,  evidently  from  Eratosthenes,  says  the  houses  are 
of  wood  and  reeds,  areyas  de  exovaiv  ck  ^vXcou  8e  'triiroirjfiivas  tjStj  Se 
Kai  BovaKwv. — De  Nat.  Animal.,  L.  xvi,  c.  xvii. 

19  "Depuis  I'origine  de  ce  royaume,"  says  Fa-bian,  *'il  n'y  a 
jamais  eu  de  famine,  de  disette,  de  calamites,  ni  de  troubles." — 
Foe-koue-ke,  p.  334 ;  Hiouen  Tbsang  similarly  speaks  of  its  abun- 
dant harvests,  ii,  p.  125. 

20  Stronger  in  Solinus,  ut  supra,  "  In  regis  electione  non  nobi- 
litas  prsevalet  sed  suffragium  universorum,"  and  afterwards,  in 
reference  to  his  having  children,  "  etiam  si  rex  maximam  praeferat 
sequitatem  nolunt  se  tantum  licere."  There  is,  however,  in  the 
Appendix  to  Taylor's  Oriental  MSS.,  p.  47,  a  long  list  of  Sinhalese 
kings,  though  belonging  to  a  later  age,  who  all  seem  to  have  died 
childless. 


98  THE   SECOND  INDIAN 

punished  and  with  death.  All  avoid  him  and  converse 
with  him,  and  thus  though  no  man  kills  him  he  dies  of 
inanition.  The  king  wears  a  robe  much  like  that  given 
to  Bacchus ;  the  people  dress  Arab  fashion.  They  are 
industrious  cultivators  of  the  soil,  and  have  all  fruits  in 
abundance,  except  grapes.  They  spend  their  festal  days 
in  the  chase,  and  prefer  that  of  the  elephant  and  tiger.^^ 
They  take  great  pleasure  in  fishing,  especially  for  turtle, 
which  are  so  large  that  the  shell  of  one  is  a  house  for  a 
family.^^  They  count  a  hundred  years  as  but  a  mode- 
rate life  for  a  man.  Thus  much  has  been  learned  and 
ascertained  concerning  Taprobane. 

To  fix  the  precise  date  of  this  embassy  is  impossible. 
But  because  it  was  an  embassy  accredited  and  pre- 
sented to  Claudius,  it  must  have  taken  place  during  his 
reign,  i.e.  some  time  between  a.d.  41  and  54.     And 

^^  iElian  speaks  of  the  size  of  the  Sinhalese  elephants,  and  how 
they  are  hunted  by  the  people  of  the  interior,  and  are  transported 
to  the  continent  in  big  ships  and  are  sold  to  the  king  of  Calinga, 
ut  supra,  c.  cxviii.  Tigers  were  however  unknown  in  Ceylon, 
though  Knox  says,  "  there  was  a  black  tygre  catched  and  brought 
to  the  king.. .there  being  no  more  either  before  or  since  heard  of 
in  that  land,"  I.  c.  vi,  p.  40;  Ptolemy,  VII  §,  gives  tigers  to 
Ceylon;  Lassen,  Ind.  Alterthumskunde,  thinks  leopards  were 
meant,  I.,  p.  198,  note  1 ;  see  also  Hist,  of  Ceylon  by  Philalethes, 
c.  xliii;  and  Ellis,  of  the  leopards  in  Africa,  "which  are  called 
tigers,"  Madagascar,  p.  223. 

22  JElian,  ut  supra,  c.  xvii,  tells  of  these  enormous  turtles,  how 
that  the  shell  is  fifteen  cubits  and  makes  a  roof  which  quite  keeps 
off  the  sun's  heat  and  the  rain's  wet,  and  is  better  than  any  tile. 
Let  me  add,  that  among  other  sea  monsters  which  according  to 
the  same  authority  frequent  the  Sinhalese  coast  we  find  the  ori- 
ginal mermaid,  but  without  her  beautiful  hair,  Kai  ywaiKcov  o\l/iv 
eyovaiv,  aiairtp  avri  TrXoKafiuv  aKavdat  irpoarjpTTjPTai,  1.  xvi,  c.  xviii, 
§30. 


EMBASSY  TO   ROME.  99 

because  it  is  not  mentioned,  nor  in  any  way  alluded  to, 
by  Pomponius  Mela,  we  conclude  that  it  reached  Eome 
subsequently  to  the  publication  of  his  Geography, 
which  appeared  certainly  after  a.d.  43,  and  probably 
before  a.d.  47.^^  And  moreover  because  it  is  unrecorded 
by  any  political  writer,  because  it  is  in  fact  known  to 
us  only  from  this  account  of  Pliny^*  and  his  copyist 
Solinus  (a.d.  400),  we  presume  that  it  reached  Eome 
when  other  and  more  interesting  events,  Messalina's 
violent  death  or  the  daring  intrigues  of  Agrippina, 
engTOSsed  men's  minds,  during  the  latter  and  more 
troubled  years  of  Claudius'  life ;  and  that  it  left  Ceylon 
in  the  reign  of  Chandra  Muka  Siwa^^  who  according  to 
the  Mahawanso  ascended  the  throne  a.d.  44  and  died 
A.D.  52. 

The  Eoman  galley  was  carried  into  Hippuros.  Hip- 
puros  has  been  identified  with  the  Ophir  of  Solomon, 
and  is  in  fact,  according  to  Bochart,^^  Ophir  disguised 


^  After  43  a.d.,  because  he  notices  the  triumph  of  Claudius  for 
his  expedition  to  Britain  :  "  Quippe  tamdiu  clausam  (Britanniam) 
aperit,  ecce  principum  maximus...qui  propriarum  rerum  fidem  ut 
bello  affectavit,  ita  triumpho  declaraturus  portat." — Geog.,  Ill, 
vi,  §  35.  And  before  47  a.d.,  because  he  nowhere  alludes  to  the 
great  discovery  of  Hippalus. 

24  It  is  not  impossible  that  Pliny  may  have  derived  his  informa- 
tion directly  from  the  ambassadors,  as  he  returned  to  Eome  from 
Germany,  a.d.  52.— Smith,  Greek  and  Eoman  Biographical  Diet., 
art.  Pliny. 

25  Vide  Mahawanso's  List  of  Kings  in  the  Appendix,  Ixii;  and 
Tennent's  Ceylon,  i,  p.  321. 

26  Geographia  Sacra,  Phaleg  lib.  II,  c.  xxvii  j  and  Chanaan,  lib. 
I,  c.  xlvi,  p.  691,  though  indeed  he  believes  in  two  Ophirs,  this 
one  and  another  in  Arabia. 


100  THE  SECOND   INDIAN 

by  the  pronunciation  of  uneducated  Greek  sailors. 
And  if  Hippuros  be  Ophir,  Galle  may  very  well  be 
Tarshisb,  as  Sir  Emerson  Tennent  seems  inclined  to 
believe.-''  But  as  Ophir  and  Tarshish  are  intimately 
associated  with  the  trade  in  gold  and  silver  ;^  and  as 
gold  and  silver  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  products  of 
Ceylon,^^  it  follows  that  Ophir  and  Tarshish,  if  Sinha- 
lese ports,  must  have  been  ports  carrying  on  a  great 
trade  not  only  with  Phoenicia,  but  with  other  and  gold- 
producing  or  gold-exporting  countries,  and  a  trade  of  a 
magnitude  and  a  character  which  presupposes  a  certain, 
and  even  considerable,  civilisation.  But,  according  to 
the  Sinhalese  books,  it  was  not  until  the  conquest  of 
Wijayo,^^  B.C.    543,   some   four  hundred    years    after 

^  Ceylon,  Preface  to  3rd  edit.,  pp.  xx,  xxi,  and  p.  102,  II,  and 
also  note  1,  p.  554,  v.  I. 

28  <'  And  king  Solomon  made  a  navy  of  ships  in  Ezion-geber"  (1 
Kings,  ix,  26).  "And  he  (Jehoshaphat)  joined  himself  with  him 
(Ahaziah)  to  make  ships  to  go  to  Tarshish"  ^^2  Chron.  xx,  38). 
"  For  the  king  had  at  sea  a  navy  of  Tarshish... once  in  three  years 
came  the  navy  of  Tarshish  bringing  gold  and  silver,  ivory,  apes, 
and  peacocks"  (1  Kings,  x,  22).  From  these  passages  it  would 
seem  as  if  Tarshish  were  a  great  mart,  all  the  commerce  of  which 
was  carried  on  by  the  ships  of  those  nations  who  traded  with  it. 
But  as  Psalm  xl,  written  subsequently  to  David's  time  (v.  9), 
gives  ships  also  to  Tarshish :  "  Thou  breakest  the  ships  of  Tar- 
shish with  an  east  wind,"  and  Ezekiel,  B.C.  588,  "  the  ships  of 
Tarshish  did  sing  of  thee  in  thy  markets"  (xxvii,  25),  it  seems 
that  with  its  great  trade  it  did  in  the  course  of  years  itself  possess 
them,  unless  indeed  ships  of  Tarshish  mean  great  ships  merely. 

29  "Gold  is  found  in  minute  particles but  the  quantity  has 

been  too  trivial  to  reward  the  search its  occurrence as  well 

as  that  of  silver  and  copper  is  recorded  in  the  Mahawanso  as  a 
aairaculous  manifestation." — Tennent,  Ceylon,  p.  29,  I,  v. 

*^  "  'this  prince,  named  Wijayo,  who  had  then  attained  the 


EMBASSY  TO   EOME.  101 

the  building  of  Solomon's  temple  and  about  forty  years 
after  Ezekiel  had  celebrated  the  fleets  of  Tarshish,  that 
Ceylon  was  opened  to  the  influence  of  civilisation.  Before 
that  time  its  inhabitants  were,  as  their  descendants  the 
Veddahs  still  are/^  a  barbarous  and  unimprovable  race, 
to  whom  all  commerce  was  hateful,  and  who  were  not 
likely  therefore  to  have  founded  Ophir  and  Tarshish. 

But  may  not  Ophir  and  Tarshish  though  Sinhalese 
IDorts  have  been  founded  and  colonised  by  some  other 
people  ?  But  what  people  ?  That  the  people  were  not 
Phoenicians  the  terms  in  which  our  Scripture  speaks  of 
them  sufficiently  indicate ;  and  that  they  -cdilid;  not* 
have  been  either  northern  Hindus  or  Tamils  we  con- 
clude, in  the  one  case  from  the  otherwise,  iuo'tpiicsibje 
silence  of  the  Mahawanso,  and  in  the  other  from  its 
account  of  the  Tamil  invasions  and  their  results.^^  But 
what  is  it  that  we  do  know  of  Ophir  and  Tarshish  ? 
Of  Ophir,  that  it  exported  largely,  and  raw  produce 
only,  gold  and  precious  woods  and  stones ;  of  Tarshish 
that  the  fleets  which  traded  with  it  from  the  West 
sailed  from  a  port  in  the  Eed  Sea,  that  the  voyage  out 
and  home  took  up  three  years,  and  that  the  return 
cargoes  were  of  gold  and  silver,  ivory,  apes  and  pea- 
cocks. It  seems  moreover  that  ivory,  apes  and  peacocks 
are  indigenous  to  India  and  that  the  words  used  in 

wisdom  of  experience,  landed  in  the  division  Tambapanni,  of  this 
land  Lanka,  on  the  day  that  the  successors  of  former  Buddhas 
reclined  in  the  arbor  of  the  two  delightful  sal-trees  to  attain  nib- 
banam." — b.c.  543,  A.  B.  I,  Mahawanso,  p.  47,  Tumour's  tr. 

31  Tennent's  Ceylon.     On  the  Veddahs,  p.  437,  II,  v. 

82  Vide  Tennent,  Ceylon.  On  the  Sinhalese  Chronicles,  pp. 
397,  413,  I.  V. 


102  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

Hebrew  to  designate  tliem  are  not  Hebrew  but  Tamil 
words.^^  But  in  the  great  mart  of  Tarshish  where  mer- 
chants from  the  east  and  west  were  wont  to  congregate, 
what  more  natural  than  that  there  the  productions 
peculiar  to  any  country  should  retain  their  natural 
name,  which  they  as  naturally  carried  away  with  them 
to  their  new  habitat?  And  we  conclude  that  these 
Tamil  words  point  to  a  trade  between  Tarshish  and 
Southern  India  and  induce  us  to  look  to  Southern 
India  for  Ophir,  but  do  not  help  us  to  identify  Tarshish. 
Hippuros :  Lassen  identifies  it  with  the  headland  at 
tiie'  soijithern  extremity  of  the  Arippo-aar,  called  Kudra- 
jaiale/^  tlie  Horse-mount,  of  which  Hippuros  is  but  the 
G&^^ek:  ec^uivalent.^^  Simple  and  natural  as  this  identifi- 
cation is,  I  should  have  preferred  one  based  on  phonetic 
grounds.  For  among  the  towns  on  the  Malabar  coast  I 
find  that  Ptolemy ^^  places  a  Hippocura.  I  observe 
also  that  some  few  divine  or  descriptive  names^^  ex- 

*3  Id.,  II,  102.  Sandal  wood.  Almug  trees,  Sans,  moclia,  with 
Arab.  art.  al.  Peacocks,  Heb.  Tukeyim,  Malabar,  Togei.  Ape, 
Heb.  Koph:  Sans,  and  Malabar,  Kapi:  Greek,  Ktjtto?  and  Ktj/Sos: 
(Gesenius,  Opbir,  Ersch  und  Gruber,  Ency.)  Assyrian,  Gupi,  Lenor- 
mant,  Zeitscbrift  f.  JEgypt.  Sprache,  p.  24. 

34  The  name,  as  accounted  for  in  a  Hindu  Hist,  of  Ceylon,  trans- 
lated in  the  24th  vol.  of  the  Asiatic  Journal,  seems  to  be  not  a 
descriptive  but  a  mythic  name.  "  A  certain  chitty  setting  out  for 
the  purpose  of  pearl  fishing  drifted  near  a  mountain,  which  he 
called  Coodiremale,"  p.  53,  in  honour  probably  of  the  horse-faced 
princess  (mentioned  ih.,  p.  16)  who,  bathing  in  one  of  the  wells 
there,  lost  her  horse  face. 

35  Lassen's  Indische  Alterthumskunde,  iii,  p.  217;  and  his  de 
Taprobane  Insula  Veteribus  cognita,  p.  22. 

^  Geographia,  lib.  vii,  c.  i,  p.  168. 

37  Thus  Indra  becomes  Zeus,  Siva  Dionysos,  Lassen,  ib.,  iii,  p. 
219.  And  {ib.,  p.  6)  where  he  enumerates  the  towns  and  harbours 
on  the  coast,  and  observes  on  the  Greek  names  by  which  they 


EMBASSY  TO   ROME.  1U3 

cepted,  Greek  traders  did  not  translate  but  merely 
adapted  the  native  names  to  tlieir  own  pronunciation 
and  idiom.  And  I  am  not  a  little  surprised  that  this 
freedman  who  so  correctly  renders  the  compound 
Kudramale  should  according  to  Lassen's  own  showing 
seem  quite  unaware  that  Kachias,  a  simple  word  and  in 
common  use,  is  not  a  name  but  a  title  and  one  borne 
by  the  members  of  the  royal  family.^^  But  whether 
Kudramale  or  some  other  port,  Hippuros  was  probably 
situated  in  the  north  of  Ceylon ;  because  to  the  north 
of  Ceylon  a  vessel  cruising  off  the  Persian  gulf  and 
caught  in  a  northerly  gale  and  driven  southward  till  it 
fell  in  with  the  spring  or  south-west  monsoon  would 
by  the  winds  and  currents  be  naturally  driven. 

"  Taprobane,"  Sanscrit  "  Tamraparni,"  Pali  "  Tamba- 
panni,"^^  the  red  leaf.     Thus  Wijayo  the  first  Hindu 

were  known,  as  Naustathmos,  Byzantion,  Triglyphon,  he  adduces 
but  one  Theophila— now  Surdhaur,  Sans.  Suradara,  i.  e.,  God- 
worshipping— which  is  possibly  the  Greek  translation  of  a  Hindu 
name.  Of  descriptive  names  we  have  the  Panjaub  "  Pentapotamoi," 
Tadmor  "  Palmyra,"  etc. 

38  "  Da  dieser  Name  am  passendsten  durch  Eagan  konig  erklart 
wird,  und  dieses  Wort  auch  fiir  Manner  aus  dem  koniglichen 
Geschlichte  gebraucht  werden  kann,  so  gehorte  Eachias  wohl  zur 
familie  des  konigs  und  wir  erfahren  somit  nicht  seinen  Eigenna- 
men,"  ib.,  iii,  p.  61.  See,  however,  Tennent,  Ceylon,  vol.  i,  p. 
556,  note  2,  who  suggests  that  "  Eachias"  may  be  "  Eackha,"  a 
Lame  of  some  renown  in  Sinhalese  annals. 

^  Lassen  de  Taprobane,  pp.  6,  8 ;  but  from  "  Tamra,"  red,  and 
"  pan'i,"  a  hand,  according  to  the  Mahawanso,  a  derivation  which 
Lassen  rejects  as  un grammatical,  but  which  the  Mahawanso,  p. 
50,  confirms,  by  telling  that  when  Wijayo  and  his  men  "had  landed, 
supporting  themselves  on  the  palms  of  their  hands  pressed  on  the 
ground,  they  sat  down.  Hence  to  thera  the  name  Tambapannyo, 
copper-palmed,"  and  to  the  wilderness  the  name  of  Tambapanni, 
and  afterwards  to  the  country. 


104  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

settler  called  that  part  of  Ceylon  where  he  landed,  and 
the  city  which  he  afterwards  built.  This  name  in  the 
course  of  time  was  applied  to  the  whole  island ;  and  as  it 
is  the  only  name  known  to  the  companions  of  Alexander, 
and  is  the  name  by  which  Ceylon  is  designated  in  the 
inscriptions  of  Asoka,*^  it  must  early  have  supplanted 
even  among  the  Hindus  the  old  mythological  one  of 
Lanka.  Subsequently,  when  our  ambassadors  lived 
and  when  the  Periplus  was  written,  it  seems  to  have 
become  obsolete,  and  to  have  been  superseded  by  that, 
of  Palaesimundus  or  rather  Palaesimoundou*^  which 
itself  yielded  to  Salike,  Serendiva/^ — the  Serendib  of 

40  Lassen  de  Tap.,  p.  9,  and  Wilson's  tr.  of  tlie  Kapur  di  Giri 
Inscription  (p.  169,  XII,  J.  Eoy.  As.  Soc),  with  his  observations,  p. 
167,  on  the  identification  of  Tamrapani. 

4^  Els  irehayos  e/c/fejTai  irpos  avTTji^  ttjv  Zvariv  vr\(ros  XcyofXivri  UaXaicri- 
fiovvdov  ttapa  Se  rots  apxaiois  avTwv  TairpoBavT]  {Scrip.  Mar.  Eryth.,  c.61, 
p.  301, 1,  V,  Geog.  Grsec.  Minores,  ed.  Miiller),  perhaps  so  called  after 
the  best  known  capital ;  for  Marsden  observes  that  by  a  mistake 
not  unusual,  the  name  of  a  principal  town  is  sometimes  substituted 
for  that  of  the  country. 

4^  Ptolemy,  A.d.  160,  Tairpo^apri  7]ris  eKoXetro  TroAoi  SiMowSoy,  vvv  Se 
^a\iK7j.  Kai  oi  KarexoPTes  avry\v  koivoos  ^a\ai. — Geog.,  1,  VII,  C.  iv.  But 
Marcianus,  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  who  borrowed  largely 
from  Ptolemy,  thus  :  Tairpo^avrj  vricros  irporepov  fxev  €KaXeiro  TlaXaicri- 
fiovvSov  vvv  Se  2aAt/fj]. — Perip.  Maris  Ext.,  I,  c.  35.  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  a.d.  361,  on  Julian's  accession  :  "  Legationes  undique 
concurrebant,  nationibus  Indicis  certatim  cum  donis  optimates 
mittentibus...abusque  Divis  et  Serendivis,  xxii,  L,  c.  7.  §.  10. 
Sopater,  in  Cosmos  Indicopleustes,  who  visited  the  island  about 
A.D.  500 :  'H  vrjaros,  7]  fieyahr)  rrapa  juej/  IvSois  Ka\ovfi€V7j  iBieXeSifia,  vapa 
Se  'E\\7]ai  Tairpo^avn. — Montfaucon,  Nov.  Coll.  Patrum,  i,  p.  366. 
The  Relations  Arabes,  Eeinaud,  ninth  century  :  "  La  demi^re  de 
ces  lies  est  Serendyb...c'est  la  principale  de  toutes,"  I,  v,  p.  6. 
This  Salike  is  formed,  according  to  Lassen  (de  Tap.,  p.  16),  from 
Sihala,  the  Pali  form  of  Sinhala,  the  home  of  lions,  with  sometimes 


EMBASSY  TO  ROME.  105 

the  Arabs — S^elediba,  which  are  "but  various  forms  of 
the  Pali  Sihala,  with  the  addition  in  some  cases  of 
"  dipa"  or  "  diba/'  an  islaiid}^ 

Palisaemundus,  the  capital  of  the  island,  and  which 
probably  gave  the  island  its  name,  is  described  as  a  sea- 
port situated  in  the  south,  and  on  a  river  of  the  same 
name  which  communicated  with  the  sea  by  three  mouths. 
This  Palissemundus  Vossius  identifies  with  Galle,*^ 
Lassen,  and  he  is  followed  by  Tennent  in  his  map  ac- 
cording to  Pliny  and  Ptolemy,  with  Anarajapura.^^ 
But  Anarajapura,  though  seated  on  the  banks  of  a  river 
of  some  magnitude  and  a  capital  and  a  great  city  which 
must  have  been  known  to  and  could  scarcely  have  been 
left  unnoticed  by  our  ambassadors,  is  an  inland  town^^ 

the  addition  of  "  dipa"  or  "  diba,"  an  island.  By  the  Chinese, 
Ceylon  is  called  the  kingdom  of  lions.  For  the  connection  of 
Salike  with  Sihala,  see  Bournouf,  la  Geogr.  ancienne  de  Ceylan, 
N.  J.  Asiatique  for  1857,  xv,  pp.  104-7. 

43  Immediately  after  it  has  told  of  the  origin  of  the  name  Tam- 
rapanni,  the  Mahawanso  goes  on  to  say  that  the  descendants  of 
Sihabu  were  called  Sihala  (lion  slayers),  and  that  this  Lanka 
having  been  conquered  by  a  Sihalo  obtained  the  name  of  Sihala, 
p.  80,  Tumour  tr.  And  the  Bhanavara  embodies  in  the  following 
verses  several  of  the  names  of  Ceylon. 

Oja-dipo,  Vara-dipo,  Manda-dipo,  cha  tada*  ahu,* 
Lanka-dipo  cha  pannati  Tambapanniti  n'ayeti. 
D'Alwis's  Descriptive  Catalogue,  p.  138. 

^  "Portus  Insulse...esse  ad  meridiem.  Quis  dubitet  quin  iste 
sit  quem  Galle  vulgo  nominant." — Vossius, Observationes  ad  Pom»« 
ponium  Melam,  p.  572. 

■15  De  Taprobane,  etc.,  p.  13. 

*^  It  is  the  chief  of  the  inland  towns,  the  TroAeu  fieaoyeioi  of 
Ptolemy,  and  by  him  designated  as  PaaiAciov,  the  royal  residence, 
while  Maagrammon  is  the  metropolis,  ut  supra.  Of  Anarajapura, 
see  also  a  description  in  Knox's  Hist.  Kelation,  p.  11. 


106  THE   SECOND  INDIAN 

and  not  even  a  river  port,  and  is  besides  in  tlie  north- 
ern and  not  the  southern  half  of  the  island.  It  answers, 
then,  in  no  way  to  the  description  of  Palissemundus ; 
Galle,  on  the  other  hand,  has  a  fine  harbour,  and  is  in 
the  southern  extremity  of  the  island,  and  is,  says  Ten- 
nent,  "  by  far  the  most  venerable  emporium  of  foreign 
trade  now  existing  in  the  universe,"  but  then  it  is 
without  a  river,  and  we  have  no  evidence  that  it  was 
ever  a  royal  city. 

Of  the  name  Palissemundus  or  Palisaemoundou  we 
may  observe : 

I.  That  only  in  the  Natural  History  of  Pliny  and  the 
so-called  Periplus  of  Arrian  is  it  an  actual  living  name. 
Some  century  later  it  is  noticed  by  Ptolemy,  but  as  a 
name  which  the  island  had  once  borne,  and  which  had 
fallen  into  disuse. 

II.  That  though  it  was  communicated  to  Pliny  by  our 
ambassadors,  themselves  Sinhalese,  and  though  it  is 
given  by  the  author  of  the  Periplus,  a  Grseco-Egyptian 
merchant,  as  the  name  by  which  Ceylon  was  known  in 
those  Hindu,  and  perhaps  Arab,  ports  where  he  traded ; 
yet  is  it  a  name  which  we  are  unable  to  connect  in  any 
way  with  the  inhabitants  or  language  of  the  island,  and 
of  all  the  island  names,  the  one  of  which  neither  Hindu 
nor  Sinhalese  Histories,  so  far  as  yet  ascertained,  have 
preserved  the  memory. 

III.  That  as  it  has  no  signification  in  Greek  or  Latin, 
it  is  probably  a  native  or  Hindu  name  adapted  to  a 
western  pronunciation.  Indeed,  though  not  very  suc- 
cessfully, it  has  been  explained  by  or  identified  with 
certain  eastern  words  or  names  by  several  scholars,  be- 


EMBASSY  TO   ROME.  107 

ginning  with  Yossius,*^  and  in  our  own  time  by  Burnonf, 
Lassen,  and  Windt,  and  with  seemingly  no  better  success 
than  their  predecessors.  First,  Windt,*^  bearing  in 
mind  the  legend  of  the  Eamayana,  wide -spread  in  the 
east,  traces  it  to  the  seafolk  of  Limarike,  and  finds  in 
PaMci-mund  its  original — Palaci,  Gnome,  Mund,  capital 
— Gnomes-capital,  a  name  of  reproach,  and  not  likely, 
therefore,  to  find  a  place  in  the  Sinhalese  annals. 
How  is  it,  then,  that  we  know  the  name  not  merely 
through  the  seafaring  author  of  the  Periplus,  but  through 
Pliny*^  also,  here  the  mouthpiece  of  Sinhalese  ambassa- 
dors, men,  as  their  statements  show,  no  way  likely  to 
depreciate  their  country  ?  Secondly,  Lassen,^^  occupied 
with  the  splendours  and  glories  of  Sinhalese  Buddhism, 
the  learning,  power,  and  mighty  works  of  its  priests  and 
kings,  identifies  Palsesimoundou  with  Pali-simanta,  the 
head  of  the  Holy  Law,  a  religious  title  which  might 
have  been  conferred  on  or  assumed  by  any  Buddhist 
city.  But  then  how  account  for  the  fact  that  this  city's 
chroniclers — for  the  city  is  Anarajapura  according  to 
Lassen — who  must  have  rejoiced  in,  did  not  perpetuate, 
this  appellation  so  honourable  to  themselves  and  their 
country,  do  not  even  seem  aware  of  it  ?    But  putting  aside 

*"''  Vossius  in  Pomp.  Melam,  ed.  Gronovii,  p.  569,  1854. 

^8  Windt,  Insel  Ceylon,  p.  96.  published  1854. 

•*^  Pliny,  and  the  author  of  the  Periplus— somewhat  later,  see 
the  accounts  of  Hippalus,  §  57 — I  regard  as  nearly  cotemporaries, 
both  for  the  reasons  adduced  by  Vincent,  Ant.  Com.,  II,  and 
Miiller's  Prolegomena  to  the  Periplus ;  and  I  think  the  very  fact 
that  they  are  the  only  writers  who  know  of  Palissemundus  as  a 
living  name — obsolete  in  Ptolemy's  time  (a.  d.  170),  is  an  evidence 
that  Dodwell's  date  is  erroneous. 

^  De  Taprobane  Insula,   p.  15. 


lOB  THE   SECOND  INDIAN 

all  general  objections,  Professor  Goldstiicker  objects  to 
Lassen's  PaZ^'simanta,  because  the  "  Pali''  does  not  in 
sound  fairly  represent  the  liaKai,  and  because  the  sense 
lent  to  it  is  contrary  to  everything  known  of  Pali  and 
Sanscrit  names.  And  thirdly,  Burnouf,  in  an  admirable 
essay  on  the  ancient  geography  of  Ceylon,  suggests  from 
the  Sinhalese,  Palal-sumana-diva,  the  island  of  the  vast 
mountain  Sumana,  as  phonetically  not  ill-representing 
Palis^emundus,  but  as  he  cannot  find  such  a  name 
given  to  the  island  by  any  native  historian,  he  suggests 
but  to  reject  it. 

But  if  Palisaemundus  be  Galle  or  any  other  town  on 
the  south  coast,  is  there  not  hope  that  we  may  still 
possibly  come  upon  some  indication  of  the  name  ?  The 
only  chronicles  of  Ceylon  that  we  have  at  hand  are  those 
of  the  northern  kingdom,  composed  in  the  monasteries, 
and  by  the  priests,  of  Anarajapura.  But  of  Galle  we  know 
next  to  nothing.  The  very  kingdom  of  which  we  pre- 
sume it  the  capital,  Eohuna,  almost  independent,  is 
itself  very  seldom  noticed  in  the  Mahawanso,  and  then 
briefly  and  only  when  the  necessities  of  the  northern  king 
drove  him  there  for  protection  or  assistance.  And  yet 
the  country  "  from  GaUe  to  Hambangtotte,  colonised  at 
an  early  period  by  the  followers  of  Wijayo  and  their 
descendants,  had",  says  Sir  E.  Tennent,  "  neither  inter- 
course nor  commixture  with  the  Malabars.  Their  tem- 
ples were  asylums  for  the  studious ;  and  to  the  present 

^1  Burnouf,  u.  s.,  96.  For  the  various  names  given  to  Ceylon, 
and  the  explanations  variously  given  to  them,  see  Vincent,  u.  s., 
II,  pp.  413-4;  and  more  fully  and  for  all  that  has  been  guessed 
about  Palissemundus.— Burnouf,  u.  s.,  p.  87. 


EMBASSY  TO  KOME.  109 

day  some  of  the  priests  of  Matura  and  Mulgirigalle  are 
accomplished  scholars  in  Sanscrit  and  Pali,  and  possess 
rich  collections  of  Buddhist  manuscripts  and  books".^^ 
From  these  manuscripts  and  books  then,  some  native 
local  chronicle,  hitherto  inaccessible,  but  beginning  to 
attract  the  attention  of  European  scholars,^^  we  are  not 
without  hope  to  learn  the  Sinhalese  name,  of  which 
Palisoemundus  was  the  Eoman  echo.^"^ 

But,  as  in  the  second  century  after  Christ  and  for  a 
short  time,  the  island  was  known  as  Palissemundus,  so 
three  centuries  before  Christ  its  inhabitants,  according 
to  Megasthenes,  were  called  Palseogonoi.^^  Por  this 
name  Lassen  accounts  by  supposing  that  Megasthenes 
was  acquainted  with  the  Eamayana^^  which  peoples 
Ceylon  with  Eakshasas,  giants,  the  sons  of  the  progeni- 
tors of  the  world,  "  gigantes  progenitorum  mundi  filii", 
and  Nagas,  demon  snakes,  monsters  whom  he  not  in- 
aptly designates  as  Palseogonoi.  But  surely  Megasthenes, 
by  his  "  incolasque  Palseogonos  appellari",  does  not  pre- 

52  Ceylon,  ii,  p.  112. 

53  As  we  may  gather  from  the  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the 
able  Secretary  of  the  Ceylon  Asiatic  Society,  Mr.  D'Alwis. 

^  Mr.  J.  H.  Nelson  has  made  inquiries  for  me  at  the  College  of 
Madura  and  elsewhere,  but  the  name  Palissemundus  is  unknown 
in  the  Tamil  country.  He  and  Mr.  Burnall  have  suggested 
several  explanations  of  it,  and  it  seems  explicable  in  so  many  ways, 
each  with  as  many  reasons  against  as  for  it,  that  we  may  fairly 
put  it  down  as  inexplicable  as  the  laugh  of  Gelimer,  or  the  mishap 
of  Welpho. 

55  "  Megasthenes  jflumine  dividi,  incolasque  Palseogonos  appel- 
lari."— Pliny,  ut  sup. 

56  "  Ees  ita  videtur  posse  expediri,  ut  dicamus,  notum  fuisse  Me- 
gastheni  fabulam  Indorum,  qua  primi  insula)  incolse  Eaxasse  sive 
Gigantes  progenitorum  mundi  filii  fuisse  traduntur." — ib,  p.  9. 


110  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

tend  to  describe  the  inhabitants  oj  the  island,  but  merely 
to  give  the  name  by  which  they  were  known,  and  to 
give  it  because  it  was  other  than  the  name  of  their 
country.  And  if  he  had  wished  to  describe  them, 
would  he  have  chosen  a  name  unknown  to  the  Greek 
mythology,  and  which  could  have  conveyed  to  the 
Greek  mind  no  clear  and  definite  conception,  and  this, 
when  there  were  Titans  and  giants  at  hand  to  whom  he 
might  so  obviously  have  likened  them  ?  For  these  and 
other  such  reasons  Schwanbeck  objecting  to  the  ex- 
planation of  Lassen,  contends  that  we  must  look 
to  some  mispronounced  native  word  for  the  original 
of  this  Palseogonoi,  and  he  finds  it  in  the  Sanscrit 
*'  Palig'anas",  men  of  the  sacred  doctriney^  But  as  this  is 
an  appellation  which  could  scarcely  have  been  given  to 
others  than  earnest  and  learned  votaries  of  Buddha,  it 
is  surely  not  applicable  to  a  people  who  were  not  even 
Buddhist  till  the  reign  of  Asoka,^^  the  son  and  succes- 
sor of  that  Chandragupta,  in  attendance  on  whom  Me- 
gasthenes  gained  his  knowledge  of  India.  ^^ 

67  Yidi^e  Schwanbeck,  on  this  passage  from  Megasthenes  preserved 
by  Pliny,  Frag.  Hist.  Grsec,  412,  II. 

^  Lassen,  Indische  Alterthumskunde,  ii,  245. 

59  "  Notat  '^^ili  ab  origine  limitem,  terminum,  finem,  atque 
amplificato  apud  Buddhistas  sensu,  regulam  doctrinse  sacrae,  con- 
textum  traditionum  legumque." — Lassen,  de  Tap.,  p.  15.  But 
Professor  Goldstiicker,  in  a  letter  to  me,  Nov.  12tli,  1871,  assures 
me  that  pali  has  not  the  signification  assigned  to  it  by  Lassen ; 
and  that  g'anas  means  not  a  people  but  a  series,  and  he  adds  that 
the  nearest  approach  he  can  find  to  Palseogonoi  is  '^are  on  the  other 
side  the  river,  and  Janas  a  people ;  Parejanas  a  people  on  the 
other  side  the  river.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  origin  of  Palseogonoi, 
as  of  Palis8Bmundus,  is  as  yet  unexplained. 


EMBASSY  TO  KOME.  Ill 

Our  ambassadors  describe  the  situation  of  tlie  island, 
and  the  sea  which  separates  it  from  the  continent,  and 
give  some  idea  of  its  size,  population  and  fertility  and 
general  features.  And  we  cannot  but  observe  that  their 
statements  are  rarely  correct,  but  rather  confirm  and 
even  exaggerate  the  extravagant  views  then  current  and 
which  the  Greeks  had  borrowed  from  the  Hindus.  They 
reduce  its  distance  from  India  about  70  miles,  from  a 
twenty  to  a  four  days'  sail,  but  increase  its  length, 
really  of  270  miles,  from  the  7,000  stadia  of  Erato- 
sthenes^ to  10,000  stadia  or  1,250  miles.  They  speak 
of  it  as  a  parallelogram  lying  with  its  longest  side  oppo- 
site to  the  Indian  coast,  which  itself  they  seem  to  sup- 
pose extended  in  a  line  almost  parallel  to  the  equator. 
The  villages  of  Eratosthenes,  though  they  reduce  the 
number  from  7,000  to  5,000,  they  magnify  into  towns, 
and  to  the  capital®^  they  give  200,000  inhabitants.  They 
tell  moreover  of  a  great  lake — Ceylon  has  no  lakes^^— 
the  Megisba,^  almost  an  inland  sea,  and  the  source  of 


^  "  Eratosthenes  et  mensuram  prodidit,  lon^tudinis  vii  M  stad., 
latitudinis  v  M,  nee  urbes  esse,  sed  vices  septingentos." — Pliny, 
ut  supra. 

^  Literally  it  is  the  palace  that  has  this  number  of  inhabitants. 
*•  Ac  regiam  cc  mill,  plebis,"  but  the  text  is  supposed  corrupt,  and 
I  take  the  more  probable  sense  of  the  passage. 

62  if  Nullum  in  ea  stagnum",  says  Vossius,  "  insignis  magnitu- 
dinis  nedum  aliquod  cujus  ambitus  habet  ccclxxv  pass,  mill."  Ad 
Pomponium  Melam,  p.  572. 

63  Megisba.  Maha-vapi,  e.g.,  great  tank,  identified  as  the  Ea- 
lawewa  tank  by  Lassen,  iii,  p.  218,  and  which  he  describes  as  it 
was  after  it  had  been  enlarged  by  Dhatusera,  a.d.  459,  vide  Maha- 
wanso,  p.  206,  and  note  to  p.  II,  Index,  and  not  as  it  was  in  the 
time  of  Pliny. 


112  THE  SECOXB  INDIAN" 

two  rivers,  wliicli,  as  tliey  take  the  one  a  northerly  and 
the  other  a  southerly  course,  necessarily  divide  the  island 
into  two  sections  and  thus  occupy  the  place  of  the  great 
river  commemorated  by  Megasthenes  and  identified  as 
the  MahaweUi  Ganga.  Of  its  fauna  they  enumerate  its 
elephants,  prized  and  celebrated  in  the  days  of  Alexan- 
der,^* and  the  tiger  now  unknown,  and  not  known  ever 
to  have  belonged,  to  Ceylon,  but  which  may  be,  Lassen 
thinks,  the  leopard.  Its  people  they  describe  as  a  nation 
of  freemen,  wealthy  and  peaceable,  industrious  and  long- 
lived,  much  as  the  Greeks  were  wont  to  describe  the 
Hindus. 

In  their  accounts  of  the  celestial  phenomena,  with 
observations  which  at  first  startle  us,  but  which  on 
examination  prove  to  be  well-founded,  we  find  others 
not  only  inaccurate  but  inexplicable.  Thus  they  asserted 
that  they  saw  the  Pleiades  and  the  Great  Bear  for  the 
first  time,  and  yet  the  former  is  always,  and  the  latter 
is  at  most  seasons,  visible  in  their  heaven.  They  told 
too  of  a  moon  which  showed  itself  only  in  its  second 
quarter,  though  in  Ceylon  the  moon  shines  and  has  ever 
shone  just  as  it  shines  everywhere.  But  their  surprise 
that  in  Europe  their  shadows  fell  north,  and  that  the 
sun  rose  on  the  left,^^  the  contrary  of  what  took  place 
with  them,  was  natural.  For  with  the  Hindus,  accord- 
ed "  Majores,  bellicosiores"  according  to  Onesicritus,  Pliny  I.e. 
But  Hamilton  describes  them  as  not  so  tall  as  those  of  Pegu ;  but 
in  their  hardness  and  strength,  added  to  their  docility  and  free- 
dom from  vice  and  passion,  is  their  superiority. — Hist.  Descrip.  of 
Hindustan,  ii,  p.  491,  4to. 

65  Lassen,  Ind.  Alterthumsk.,  iii,  p.  216  ;  but  compare  Vincent, 
Commerce  of  the  Antients,  ii,  p.  492. 


EMBASSY  TO   EOME.  113 

ing  to  Wilford  (Asiatic  Ees.,  x,  157},  north  and  left, 
south  and  right,  are  identical;  and  Sir  Emerson  Tennent 
explains  their  remark,  "  by  the  fact  of  the  sun  passing 
overhead  in  Ceylon  in  his  transit  to  the  northern  sol- 
stice, instead  of  hanging  about  the  south  as  in  Italy 
after  acquiring  some  elevation  in  the  horizon. "^^ 

They  spoke  of  the  laws  and  constitution  of  their 
island.  They  told  of  an  elected  and  responsible  monarch, 
who  to  be  eligible  must  be,  and  as  king  must  remain, 
childless,  and  whose  authority  was  limited  and  con- 
trolled by  an  elected  council,  which  was  itself  account- 
able to  the  great  body  of  the  people.  Now  I  presume 
that  our  ambassadors  w^ere  the  real  representatives  of 
a  real  sovereign.  But  in  a  strange  land  when  men  are 
called  upon  to  give  some  account  of  their  native  country 
unknown  there,  though  I  can  very  well  understand 
that  they  should  exaggerate  its  wealth  and  power  and 
beauty,  and  hurry  over  or  suppress  its  natural  and 
political  disadvantages,  I  believe  that  in  the  main  their 
statements  will  be  founded  on  fact,  and  that  the  picture 
they  draw  however  highly  coloured  will  in  its  more 
prominent  features  bear  some  resemblance  to  its  original. 
Further,  if  either  in  their  enthusiasm  or  in  their  desire 
to  conciliate  admiration  they  venture  on  pure  fiction,  I 
conceive  that  they  will  necessarily  shape  their  discourse 
in  the  one  case  to  their  own  ideal,  in  the  other  to  that 
of  their  auditors.  But  of  Ceylon,  the  Ceylon  of  the 
Mahaw^anso,  where  the  king  and  the  priests  in  turn 
were  absolute,  and  the  crown  without  any  strict  law  of 

^  Ceylon,  i,  p.  558. 


114  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

succession  was  hereditary,  and  tlioiigli  often  forced  out 
of  the  direct  line  always  confined  to  one  family,  it  is 
surely  altogether  improbable  that  any  native,  the  am- 
bassador of  such  a  king,  should  boast  of  a  constitutional 
monarchy.  And  at  Eome  and  on  their  way  thither  who 
were  the  companions  of  our  Sinhalese  ?  During  their 
long  voyage  they  associated  on  terms  of  intimacy  with 
the  freedman  of  Plocamus  and  his  crew ;  they  feasted 
probably  with  the  merchant  Greeks  of  Alexandria; 
and  at  Kome  they  were  received  and  welcomed  by  the 
courtiers  and  freedmen  of  Claudius.  And  in  this 
degraded  society  of  this  degraded  age,  where  could 
they  have  heard  even  a  whisper  of  liberty,  and  where 
have  acquired  for  themselves  the  idea,  and  for  their 
country  the  honour  of  a  responsible  sovereign  ? 

How  then  account  for  these  statements  ?  From  the 
Mahawanso  we  learn :  first,  that  in  the  third  century 
B.C.  Ceylon  was  twice  invaded^^  by  bands  of  Tamil 
■  adventurers,  whose  chiefs  on  each  occasion  after  a  vic- 
torious war  put  to  death  the  native  king,  and  in  his 
place  ruled  over  the  northern  districts  of  the  island,  the 
first  time  for  twenty-two,  the  second  for  forty-four, 
years.  Secondly,  that  at  the  close  of  the  second  century 
B.C.,  seven  adventurers  of  the  same  nation  landed  with 
a  great  army  at  Mahattotthe,  marched  upon  Anarajapura, 
fought  and  defeated  the  king,  drove  him  into  the  Malaya, 
and  for  fourteen  years  held  possession  of  his  capital. 
And  thirdly,  that  about  50  B.C.  Tamils  were  settled  in 

67  Vide  Mahawanso,  p.  127,  for  the  first  invasion,  b.c.  257 ;  for 
ihe  second,  p.  128,  b.c.  207;  and  for  the  third,  p.  203,  b.c.  103. 


EMBASSY  TO   EOME.  115 

the  country,  and  that  a  Tamil  became  the  favourite  of, 
and  was  raised  to  the  throne  by,  the  Queen  Anula.^  So 
far  the  native  chronicles.  From  a  Hindu  history  of 
Ceylon,  of  which  there  is  a  translation  in  the  Asiatic 
Journal,^^  we  learn  that  from  an  early  period  the  north- 
ern extremity  of  Ceylon  was  occupied  by  Tamils  ;  that 
in  the  year  3300  of  the  Kali  age  a  daughter  of  Pandian 
attended  by  sixty  bands  of  Wannies  proceeded  to  Cey- 
lon and  was  married  to  its  king,  and  that  at  his  desire 
her  companions  went  northward  and  settled  at  Yaul- 
panam  now  Jaffnapatam,  and  that  subsequently  other 
emigrants  from  the  same  part  of  the  continent  settled 

68  "Anula  then  forming  an  attachment  for  a  Damillo,  named 
Watuko...who  had  formerly  been  a  carpenter  in  the  town." — lb., 
p.  209. 

69  Vide  vol.  xxiv,  pp.  53,  153.  **  This  happened  three  thousand 
three  hundred  years  in  the  Kali  age.".. .And  as  "in  the  year  5173 
of  the  age  Kali,  the  king  Sangalee  making  war  with  the  Portu- 
guese will  perish"... and  the  Portuguese  will  rule  "till  the  year 
5213,  after  which  the  Dutch... will  govern  the  kingdom  until  the 
year  5795,  when  on  the  6th  June  the  English  will  come  and 
govern"  (p.  155),  we  are  enabled  to  ascertain  the  date  of  the 
arrival  of  the  princess.  For  Kajah  Singha  was  finally  defeated, 
and  died  of  his  wounds  in  a.d.  1592,  and  as  from  a.k.  3300  to 
A.K.  5173,  there  have  elapsed  1873  years,  it  follows  that  the 
princess  arrived  in  Ceylon  b.c.  281  (the  only  daughter  of  Pandya 
who  came  to  Ceylon,  according  to  the  Mahawanso,  came  the  year 
after  Buddha's  death,  a.d.  543),  or  some  thirty  years  before  the 
first  Tamil  invasion.  Again,  from  a.k.  5173  to  a.k.  5213,  we  have 
an  interval  of  forty  years,  but,  as  in  fact  the  Dutch  had  a  fort  in 
Cottiar  in  1612,  or  twenty  years  after  the  death  of  Singha,  though 
they  were  not  finally  masters  of  the  island  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
Portuguese  till  a.d.  1658,  or  sixty-six  years  after  that  event,  we 
must  take  forty  years  as  an  average.  The  date  given  to  the  Eng- 
lish rule  is  inexplicable,  unless  as  a  mistake  5795  a.k.  is  put  for 
1795  A.j).—8ee  also  Tennent,  II,  p.  38. 


116  THE   SECOND   INDIAN" 

in  and  occupied  the  north  of  the  island  as  far  as  the 
Wanny.  These  Tamils,  Sir  Emerson  Tennent  states, 
were  ruled  by  a  dynasty  of  Eajahs  who  held  their  court 
at  Nalloor ;  and  he  adds  that  he  considers  it  "  possible 

that  Eachias who  arrived  at  Eome  in  the  reign  of 

Claudius  may  have  represented  not  the  Sinhalese  mon- 
arch, but  the  Eajah  of  Jaffna."^^  A  moment  admit  that 
he  did,  and  how  would  this  affect  or  account  for  the 
statements  attributed  to  him  ?  The  Tamils  were  southern 
Hindus,  and  as  the  great  temple  on  the  island  of 
Eamiseram  indicates,  worshippers  of  Eama,  whom  Greeks 
and  Eomans  would  probably  identify  with  Hercules. 
They  colonised  and  were  strictly  confined  to  the  northern 
extremity  of  the  island,  and  up  to  the  time  of  our 
embassy  they  never  seem  as  a  nation  to  have  pene- 
trated beyond  the  Malaya  or  to  have  formed  any  per- 
manent settlement  on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Cydara. 
Our  ambassadors  then  had  probably  no  opportunities  of 
making  themselves  acquainted  with  the  real  size  of 
Ceylon,  and  they  would  eagerly  accept  the  gigantic 
proportions  assigned  to  it  by  their  own  Hindu  tradition. 
They  would  also  be  ignorant  to  some  extent  of  the 
political  institutions  of  the  Sinhalese,  but  scarcely  to 
the  extent  shown  in  the  narrative  of  Pliny ;  and  we  ask 
therefore  whether  this  elective  and  limited  monarchy 
might  not  have  been  their  own  ?  On  their  government 
and  political  institutions  the  Mahawanso  gives  no  in- 
formation. If  we  study  the  people  themselves,  even  at 
this  day  we  find  them  distinguishable  from  the  Sinhal- 

70  Ceylon,  II,  p.  539,  note  2. 


EMBASSY  TO   EOME.  117 

ese  by  qualities  which  we  are  accustomed  to  look  upon 
as  the  characteristics  of  a  free  people,  or  at  least  of  a 
people  living  under  known  laws.  They  are  industrious, 
persevering,  intelligent,  orderly,  provident,  and  have  a 
keen  sense  of  the  rights  and  advantages  of  property.  In 
their  country  you  meet  with  no  stupendous  ruins  of 
palaces  or  dagobas  or  artificial  lakes,  to  attest  the  selfish 
magnificence  and  sometimes  the  far-seeing  wisdom  of 
an  absolute  sovereign.  There  the  villages  and  cottages 
are  neat  and  clean,  and  the  gardens  and  fields  enclosed 
by  carefully  made  and  well-trimmed  fences ;  there  to 
ensure  the  irrigation  and  fertility  of  the  land  each 
village  built  out  in  the  open  has  its  tank,  each  farm- 
house its  well,  the  work  of  its  owner^s  hands  or  his 
predecessor's;  there  you  everywhere  meet  with  some- 
thing that  tells  of  municipal  care  or  individual  exertion, 
but  with  nothing  that  is  the  work  of  an  imperial  will 
aided  by  imperial  resources.^^ 

Again  the  Pandyan  chronicles,  though  they  tell  of 
Sera  and  Sora  wars  and  their  results,  contain  no  notice 
of  any  Tamil  settlements  in  Ceylon.  And  of  the  three 
Tamil  invasions  of  Ceylon  which  had  occurred  previous 
to  our  embassy,  and  which  are  recorded  by  the  Maha- 
wanso,  we  find  that  the  first  and  third  were  under  the 
leadership  the  one  of  two,  the  other  of  seven,  chief- 
tains. We  learn  further  that  of  the  seven  chiefs  who 
conducted  this  last  expedition,  two  after  the  capture  of 
Anarajapura  re-embarked  with  their  booty  for  their 
own    country;    that   of  the  remaining  five   one  was 

'^  Tennent's  Ceylon,  II,  p.  542,  etc. 


118  THE    SECOND   INDIAN 

probably  chosen  as  king,  but  that  after .  a  three  years' 
reign  he  was  put  to  death  and  supplanted  by  his 
minister,  who  in  his  turn  suffered  the  same  fate  by 
the  same  means,  until  at  length  five  kings  had  occupied 
the  throne,  each  one  of  whom  was  murdered  by  his 
minister  and  successor  except  the  last,  and  he  lost  his 
life  and  capital  to  the  native  Sinhalese  monarch.''^ 
Coupling  now  the  silence  of  the  Pandyan  chronicle 
with  the  information  slight  as  it  is  which  the  Maha- 
wanso  affords  of  the  untimely  deaths  of  these  Tamil 
kings,  may  we  not  infer  that  these  Tamil  invasions  and 
conquests  were  not  national  acts,  the  expression  of  the 
national  will,^^  but  rather  the  exploits  of  individual 
adventurers  banded  together  for  a  special  object,  and 
conducted  by  leaders  whom  they  had  elected,  and 
whom  they  could  depose  as  easily  as  they  had  elected  ? 
And  after  these  Tamils  had  been  driven  out  of  Anara- 
japura  and  back  to  their  old  boundaries,  with  as  the 
narrative  of  the  Mahawanso  presumes  no  one  among 
them  pre-eminent  by  his  wealth,  or  birth,  or  authority,  is 
it  not  probable  that  after  many  a  continuous  struggle 
among  themselves  for  a  power  which  was  no  sooner 
attained  than  it  was  overthrown  by  the  jealousy  of 
former  equals,  after  many  a  revolution  and  the  assassi- 
nation of  many  a  king,  is  it  not  probable  that  these 
rival  chieftains,  if  they  wished  not  their  country  and 

72  Mahawanso,  pp.  203-4. 

73  In  the  geographical  description  of  the  Tamil  country.  Appen- 
dix D,  II,  p.  25,  Taylor's  Oriental  Hist.  MSS.,  Cape  Comorin  is 
the  furthest  southern  boundary,  and  no  mention  whatever  is  made 
of  Ceylon  as  Tamil,  or  subject  to  Tamil  rule. 


EMBASSY  TO   ROME.  119 

themselves  utterly  to  perish,  should  settle  down  at 
length  to  some  form  of  government  not  very  dissimilar 
to  that  described  by  Pliny  on  the  authority  of  their 
ambassador  ? 

But,  again,  our  ambassadors  spoke  a  language  which 
had  never  before  been  heard  in  Eome,  and  which  the 
freedman  of  Plocamus  alone  could  interpret,  and  with 
which  even  he  was  most  probably  but  imperfectly 
acquainted.  Wliat  they  told  then  might  easily  be 
misrepresented  by  the  ignorance  of  the  translator,  or 
its  purport  misunderstood  when  it  associated  itseK  in 
the  minds  of  their  audience  with  some  previous  know- 
ledge or  foregone  conclusion.  In  this  way  the  im- 
possible account  of  the  celestial  phenomena  of  Ceylon 
may  be  attributed  to  ignorance  of  the  language,  and 
the  story  of  the  supposed  Seres  to  a  misunderstanding, 
but  a  misunderstanding  which  I  am  unable  satisfac- 
torily to  explain. 

I  would  ask  however  why  it  is  that  we  identify  the 
Seres  with  the  Seras  of  our  text  ?  If  they  are  one  and 
the  same  people  as  Pliny  thought  why  here  and  here 
only  do  they  appear  as  Seras  ?  And  if  Seres,  a 
distant  people — would  Eachias'  father,  even  though  of 
Tamil  extraction  and  of  a  more  energetic  race  than  the 
Sinhalese  proper,  would  he  have  talked  of  their  country 
as  one  he  was  in  the  habit  of  visiting,  commeasse  ? 
But  if  not  Seres  who  are  these  Seras  ?  It  is  clear  to 
me  that  they  are  Seras  not  without  reason.  Pliny  or 
whoever  took  down  the  statements  of  our  ambassadors 
reproduced  as  nearly  as  he  could  the  exact  names  he 
heard  from  them.     ]N"ow  the  northern  boundary  of  the 


120  THE   SECOND   INDIAN 

Pandyan,  the  Tamil,  kingdom  and  in  frequent  relations 
of  peace  and  war  with  it  is  known  as  "the  Great 
Chera"  or  Sera''*  country,  a  country  not  so  distant  but 
that  Eachias'  father  might  occasionally  have  gone  to 
and  fro  between  it  and  his  home,  and  a  country  the 
inhabitants  of  which  would  be  designated  as  Seras  or 
SersB.  But  with  this  people,  these  Seras,  Pliny's  authority 
connects  a  strange  fashion  of  barter,  though  one  in  use 
among  several  wild  races  ;^^  and  if  it  could  be  shown 
that  such  a  race  wandered  amid  the  forests  and  moun- 
tains of  Chera  our  task  would  be  easy,  our  explanation 
found.  But  I  can  meet  with  no  trace  or  record  of  any 
such  race  there.  In  Ceylon  itself  however  we  hear  of 
Bedahs  or  Veddahs  who  from  time  immemorial  have 
haunted  and  still  haunt  its  rocks  and  coasts  and  still 
carry  on  their  small  traffic  unseeing  and  unseen,  and 
who  are  besides  so  barbarous  that  even  their  possession 
of  a  language  has  been  doubted.^^  But  these  are  Sin- 
halese ?  True,  but  of  them  and  their  singular  custom 
of  trade  the  ambassadors  would  not  improbably  speak, 
and  as  this  very  custom  was  intimately  associated  in 
the  Eoman  mind^^  with  the  Seres,  whoever  they  may 

74  Cbtra,  Nelson's  Madura  country.  Ill, 2><.  passim.  Sera,  Taylor's 
Oriental  MSS.,  Appendix  II,  p.  26.  In  re-examining  the  statements 
of  the  ambassadors,  I  read  with  Gronovius,  "  lidem  narravere  latus 
insulse  quod  prsetenderetur  IndisG  x  mill.  stad.  esse  ab  oriente  hy- 
berno  ultra  montes  Emodos." — i.  e.,  that  part  of  these  mountains — 
'*  quorum  promontorium  Imaus  vocatur." — Pliny,  c.  xxvi,  ad  cal, 

'5  Supra,  note  15,  p.  96. 

76  Eeinaud,  Mem.  s.  I'lnde,  p.  345.    Tennent's  Ceylon,  441,  II. 

"^  Thus  Pomponius  Mela,  III,  vii,  10  :  "  Seres  intersunt... genus 
plenum  justitiae,  ex  commercio,  quod  rebus  in  solitudine  relictis 
absens  peragit  notissimum."    And  Pliny,  vi,  20 :    "  Seres  mites 


EMBASSY  TO   ROME.  121 

have  been,  his  Eoman  interlocutor  would  naturally 
ask :  Did  they  then  know  the  Seres  ?  And  he  would 
tell  of  the  Seras.  Hence  a  confusion  probable  enough 
and  explicable.  But  unluckily  he  also  adds  a  descrip- 
tion of  this  wild  race.  He  gives  them  large  bodies,  red 
hair,  blue  eyes  and  a  rough  voice''^  i.e.,  he  describes  a 
Scythic^^  not  a  Hindu  people  and  certainly  not  the 
Veddahs  whose  long  black  matted  hair,  and  large  heads 
and  misshapen  limbs^^  and  miserable  appearance  at- 
tracted the  notice  and  excited  the  pity  of  Sir  E. 
Tennent.    Of  course  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Eachias 

quidem,  sed  et  ipsis  feris  persimiles  coetum  reliquorum  mortalium 
fugiunt,  commercia  expectant." 

78  I  find  from  Pritchard  (Nat.  Hist,  of  Man,  p.  245),  that  grey- 
eyed  and  red-baired  Sinhalese  are  occasionally  to  be  met  with, 
but  these  are  so  few  that  they  can  never  have  stood  for  Pliny's 
description  of  the  Serae  ;  nor  can  we,  as  I  at  first  supposed,  refer 
either  to  the  Eakshasas  (Eamayana,  Fauche  tr.,  vi,  140),  the  mythic 
aborigines  of  Ceylon  and  the  supposed  ancestors  of  the  Veddahs, 
or  to  the  demon  masks  worn  by  the  Sinhalese  in  their  solemn 
dances  (Kolan  Nattannawana,  Upham's  tr..  Or.  Tr.  Fund),  as  its 
originals  j  for  neither  have  anything  in  common  with,  or  any  pos- 
sible likeness  to,  these  Serae. 

79  "  Traces  of  a  Scythic  descent  are  to  be  found  among  the 
Kattees  of  Kattywar  at  this  day." — Letter  from  Sir  G.  le  G.  Jacob, 
read  at  the  Asiatic  Society,  February  19th,  1872.  From  the  Peri- 
plus,  §  38,  we  learn  that  they  occupied,  and  that  their  capital  was 
seated  on,  the  lower  Indus,  but  that  they  were  then  subject  to  the 
Parthians.  We  know  too  that  at  the  commencement  of  our  era 
they  conquered  India,  but  I  cannot  find  that  they  ever  settled  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  peninsula.  If  then  we  suppose  Eachias' 
father  sailing  to  the  Indus  to  meet  with  those  blue-eyed  men, 
we  have  still  to  account  for  their  mode  of  traffic  which  is  not 
Scythian. 

*•  Pritchard,  on  Dr.  Davy's  authority,  gives  a  pleasanter  ac- 
count of  the  Veddahs,  but  of  the  village  Veddahs  probably. 


122  SECOND  INDIAN  EMBASSY  TO  EOME. 

does  not  speak  of  liis  own  knowledge,  that  his  memory 
may  be  at  fault,  that  his  questions  confounded  one 
people  with  another,  but  after  all  this  the  misunder- 
standing is  not  accounted  for  or  cleared  up. 

Finally,  if  we  give  this  embassy  to  the  Sinhalese 
proper,  then,  if  our  ambassadors  were  not  guilty  of 
absurd  and  purposeless  falsehoods,  wliich  is  very  im- 
probable, they  were  grossly  ignorant  of  the  size  and 
characteristics  of  their  native  land — a  conclusion  which 
nothing  in  their  history  warrants.  On  the  contrary, 
the  frequent  retreat  of  the  Court  to  the  Malaya  and 
Eohuna,^^  and  the  complaint  of  Gamini,^^  and  the  tanks 
and  other  great  works  of  the  native  kings,  indicate  a 
knowledge  of  the  island,  its  size,  resources,  and  general 
features.  If  on  the  other  hand,  we  take  our  ambassa- 
dors from  the  Tamils  of  Ceylon,  we  then  have  a  story 
full  of  errors  it  is  true,  but  easily  accounted  for,  and 
the  most  extraordinary  statement  of  which,  that  re- 
lating to  the  Serae,  is  capable  of  possible  explanation. 

SI  Whenever  driven  from  Anarajapura  tlie  native  king  retires 
to  tlie  southern  kingdom.  Thus  after  the  conquest  of  Elaro  we 
find  him  and  his  queen  resident  at  Mahag'amo. — Mahawanso,  p. 
134.  So  the  queen  Anula  on  the  occasion  of  the  invasion  of  the 
seven  Damilos  flees  to  the  Malaya. — ib.,  p.  204. 

82  "  Gamini  laid  himself  on  his  bed  with  his  hands  and  feet 
gathered  up.  The  princess  mother  inquired ;  '  My  boy  why  not 
stretch  thyself  on  thy  bed  and  lie  down  comfortably  ?*  *  Confined/ 
replied  he,  'by  the  Damilos  beyond  the  river  (Mahawelliganga), 
and  on  the  other  side  by  the  unyielding  ocean,  how  can  I  lie  down 
with  outstretched  limbs  ?' " — ih.,  p.  136. 


ON.  THE 

INDIAN   EMBASSIES  TO  ROME. 


ON 

THE   INDIAN   EMBASSIES   TO   EOME, 

FROM  THE   REIGN   OF   CLAUDIUS  TO   THE  DEATH 
OF  JUSTINIAN. 


After  the  Sinhalese  embassy  to  Claudius,  the  Indian 
embassies  to  Eome  were  few  and  far  between.  To  the 
death  of  Justinian,  a.d.  565,  four  only  have  been  no- 
ticed and  barely  noticed  by  historians.  The  first,  to 
Trajan,^  was  present  with  him  at  the  great  shows  which 
he  offered  to  the  Eoman  people,  a.d.  107.  The  second,  to 
Antoninus  Pius,^  A.D.  138-161,  came  to  pay  homage  to 
his  virtues.  The  third  to  Julian,^  though  intended  Zonaras 
asserts  for  Constantius,  reached  him  according  to  Am- 

^  Upos  de  rov  Tpaiavov  es  ri\v  Pcu^tjj/  ^XQovra  irXiKnai  darai  irpia^eiai 
irapa  fiapfiapofu  aWoos  re  Kai  Ij'Scci'  acpiKouTO'  Kai  d€a5...€iroiri(T€v  ev  ats 
6r]pia...xiXia  Kai  fivpia  i(T<pa'yif)...bTi  6  Tpaiavos  rovs  vapa  tup  ^aaihtosv 
mpiKVOv/xevov^  €v  T(f  PovAevriKCf)  Qiacraadai  eiroift. — Dio  Cassius,  vol.  I, 
68,  156  J  II,  p.  313,  Bekker. 

2  "  Quin  etiam  Indi  Bactriani  Hyrcani  legates  miserunt  justitia 
tanti  imperatoris  comperta."— Aurelian  Victor,  Epit.  xvi. 

3  "  Pei'inde  timore  ejus  adventus. . .legationes  undique  solito  ocius 
coiicuiTebant...nationibus  Indicis  certatim  cum  donis  optimates 
mittentibus  ante  tempus  abusque  Divis  et  Serendivis."— Ammia- 
nus  Marcellinus,  'xxii,  7,  277,  p.  i ;  but  Zonares,  ExpTj/Ltarife  5e  kui 
vpea^eaiv  e/c  Siacpopcov  fdiuv  araAfiai  irpos  rov  Kuvcxavnov. 


126  INDIAN  EMBASSIES  FHOM 

mianus  Marcellinus,  before  it  was  expected,  a.d.  361, 
and  included  ambassadors  from  the  Divi  (Maldives)  and 
the  Serendivi  (the  Sinhalese)  who  now  for  the  first  time 
appear  under  their  own  name  and  the  name  by  which 
they  were  known  to  the  Arabs.  And  the  fourth  to 
Justinian^  brought  him  gifts,  and  was  at  Constantinople, 
A.D.  530. 

These  are  but  scant  memorials  of  petty  diplomatic 
courtesies,  and  scattered  as  they  are  over  nearly  five 
hundred  years  they  do  little  to  illustrate  the  intercourse 
between  Kome  and  India,  which  during  the  first  half 
of  these  long  centuries  reached  its  highest  point  of  de- 
velopment, while  during  the  last  it  had  so  fallen  away 
that  in  so  far  as  it  was  direct  it  may  be  regarded  as  ex- 
tinct. Of  that  intercourse  I  now  propose  to  give  a 
rapid  sketch. 

The  discovery  of  the  monsoons,  and  the  distracted 
state  of  the  Parthian  Empire  had  at  the  beginning  of 
the  second  half  of  the  first  century,  the  close  of  Clau- 
dius' reign,  driven  the  whole  of  the  trade  between  the 
east  and  west  to  the  great  city  of  Alexandria.^  Its 
people  quick-witted  but  restless  of  disposition  and  ex- 
citable of  temper  grew  wealthy,  and  grew  insolent  as  they 


4  Ev  avTcp  86  rep  xpo^v  (when  John  of  Cappodocia  was  made  Prse- 
^o-^ian  Exarch,  a.d.  530,  Smith,  Biog.  Diet.)  kui  irpeff^vTrjs  IvScwj/ 
juera  dcopcDV  KaTfireixtpdrj  iv  KuvaravTiPoviroXei. — Malalas,  p.  477 ;  and  a 
Hindu  embassy  I  gather  on  comparing  it  with  another  African- 
Indian  embassy  mentioned,  pp.  458-9,  ib. 

^  Dio  Chrysostom,  time  of  Trajan,  speaks  of  it  as  second  only 
to  Rome,  ttoAis  devrepa  rwv  viro  rov  r]\i.ov. — Oratio,  xxxii,  pp.  669-70; 
even  in  the  sixth  century  it  was  Mevtarrj  iroKis. — Cosmas  Montfau- 
con,  Kova  Collectio  Patrum,  I,  124. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  127 

grew  wealthy.  The  person  and  character  of  the  sovereign 
was  a  favourite  theme  for  their  ridicule  f  and  on  every 
slight  occasion,  when  not  taken  up  with  factious  fights 
among  themselves,  they  rose  in  tumult  against  their 
governors  and  sometimes  even  in  revolt  against  the 
state.  The  emperors  looked  upon  them  with  no  friendly 
eye.  And  it  was,  perhaps,  as  much  to  abate  their  in- 
solence as  to  forward  the  interests  of  trade,  that  Hadrian 
put  an  end  to  their  monoply,  and  admitted  Palmyra  in- 
to the  commercial  system  of  the  Eoman  .Empire.^ 
Under  his  patronage,  and  that  of  his  successors,  the 
Antonines,^  who  lived  much  in  the  east,  and  followed 
out,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe,  his  policy,  Pal- 

^  See  Hadrian's  letter  to  the  Consul  Servianus  in  Flavins  Vo- 
piscus  ;  "  Genus  hominum  seditiosissimum,  vanissimum,  impuris- 
simum  :  civitas  opulenta  dives  f8ecunda...utinam  melius  esset 
morata  civitas... liuic  ego  cuncta  concessi...et  in  filium  Verum 
multi  dixerunt,  et  de  Antinoo  quae  dixerunt  comperisse  te  credo.'* 
— Augustee  Scriptores,  234,  II.  Dio  Chrysostom  speaks  of  the 
turbulent  sneers,  and  mocks,  and  angry  hisses  with  which  they 
greeted  both  king  and  private  nian,  ovk  eSetrra  rov  vfxerepop  Qpovv, 
ov^i  TOP  yiXoDTa,  ouSe  'n]v  opyrju,  ovSc  avpiyixovs,  ovde  ra  aKwixpLora  ols 
vavTas  6K7rA77TT6T€.../cai  i5i(arir)v  nai  iSaciAeo,  id.,  p.  664;  and  that  this 
had  estranged  the  emperors  we  may  gather  from  p.  637,  fis  viroy\iLav 
avTovs  Kad^  vfxwv  Tijay^rw.  Also  p.  700,  Reiske  ed.  And  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  "  Sed  Alexandria  in  internis  seditionibus  diu  aspere 
fatigata."— xxii,  §  16,  p.  207. 

''  Ersch  and  Griiber,  Encyclopedie,  art.  Palmyra.  Not,  how- 
ever, forgetting  that  between  India  and  Palmyra  trade  already 
existed;  for  Trajan,  having  descended  the  Tigris,  67r'  avrov  rov 
n,Kiavov  f\d(i}u...Kai  ir\oiou  ri  €s  Ii'Sjoi'  irXeov  iS<ov. — Cassius,  L.  67,  c. 
28.  And  through  Palmyra  probably  "  That  colony  of  Jews  which 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  settled  in  Cochin,  made  their 
way." — Buchanan's  Eesearches;  Day's  Permaul,  pp.  341-53. 

8  Of  works  treating  of  India  belonging  to  this  period  we  have — 
The  Periplus  of  the  Erythraean  Sea  (a.d.  81,  96);  Prolog,  de  Auct. 


128  INDIAN  EMBASSIES   FEOM 

myra  rapidly  developed  the  advantages  wliicli  it  derived 
from  its  position  on  the  nearest  route  to  India,  It 
flourished  and  grew  daily  in  importance.  And  when 
Emesa,  almost  on  its  frontiers,  and  on  its  high  road  to 
Antioch  and  Damascus,  gave  to  Eome  Julia  Domna,  the 
wife  of  one  Emperor,  Severus,  and  the  mother  of 
another,  Caracalla,  and  afterwards  two  Emperors,  Ela- 


Perip.,  p.  xcvii,  L.  Geog.  Minor,  ed.  Dido t— a  manual  of  Roman, 
or  rather  Egyptian,  trade  with  India ;  a  really  original  work,  the 
result  of  the  author's  own  observation  and  experience  as  a  mer- 
chant and  supercargo.  The  Geography  of  Ptolemy  (a.d.  138,  161), 
the  first  work  which  makes  the  circuit  of  Ceylon,  and  names  the 
harbours  and  headlands  on  its  coast,  its  rivers,  mountains,  and 
towns.  The  Expedition  of  Alexander  and  the  Indica  of  Arriau 
(a.  d.  150,  160),  both  compilations,  but  the  compilations  of  a 
man  of  sense  and  critical  acuteness — the  one  made  up  from  the 
cotemporary  histories  of  Alexander,  the  other  from  the  narratives 
of  Megasthenes,  Eratosthenes,  and  Nearchus.  We  have  besides 
notices  of  India  and  Indian  manners  scattered  through  several  of 
the  numerous  treatises  of  Plutarch  and  the  orations  of  Dion  Chry- 
sostom  (A.D.  100);  but  they  both  draw  their  information  from  the 
common  storehouse, — and  even  in  that  longer  description  of  India 
as  the  true  pays  de  Cocagne  which  Dion  gives  in  his  Oratio  in 
Calenis  Phrygian,  he  merely  throws  together  in  one  piece  the 
various  Indian  myths  which  Ctesias  and  Onesicritus  so  willingly 
collected  and  believed.  Among  the  writers  of  this  age  we  may 
also  though  with  some  hesitation  class  Q.  Curtius  (Smith's  Biog. 
Diet.,  V.  1),  and  Dionysius  Periegetes  (Geog.  Hist.  Prolog.,  p.  18, 
II,  Didot).  But  neither  had  of  himself  any  knowledge  of  India; 
the  first  merely  copied  and  compiled  from  the  old  historians  of 
Alexander,  and  the  second  as  well  in  his  Bassarika  as  in  his  Perie- 
gesis  is  original  (?)  only  in  so  far  as  he  connects  the  known  coun- 
try of  India  with  the  exploits  of  Bacchus  :  indeed  he  says  of  him- 
self— 

ov  yap  fioi  j8iO$  eari  fx^Xaivaav  eiri  vriwf 
ou5e  fjioi  ffiTTopiT]  Trarpuios,  ou5'  67rt  ra77Tj^ 
fpXotJLai,  oia  re  iroWoi. — vv.  709-11. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  129 

gabalus  and  Alexander :  then  sated  with  wealth  it  began 
to  aspire  to  other  than  the  arts  of  commerce  ;  it  levied 
or  hired  armies ;  it  made  conquests  and  acquired  terri- 
tory ;  it  became  a  power,  and  for  a  moment  held  with 
Eome  divided  empire.^ 

The  trade  between  Eome  and  India,  even  under  the 
earlier  Antonines,  must  have  been  important  ;^^  for  it 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Chinese.  Their  annals 
speak  of  it  as  carried  on  principally  by  sea ;  they  enu- 
merate the  commodities  as  coral,  amber,  gold,  sapphires, 
mother-of-pearl,  perfumes,  etc.,  which  it  preferred,  and 
allude  to  the  trade  frauds  and  manipulations  by  which 
Eoman  merchants  freshened  up  and  flavoured  exhausted 
perfumes-^^  for  foreign  and  provincial  markets.  They 
speak  of  Eoman  merchants  in  relations  of  commerce 
with  and  visiting  Burmah,  Tonquin  and  Cochin  China ; 
and  what  more  interests  us,  they  have  preserved  the 
memory  of   an  Embassy  from  the   Eoman  Emperor 

9  See  de  Odonato  XIV,  the  Duo  Gallieni  III,  the  Claudius  XII, 
Trigint.  Tyran.,  Trebellii  PoUion.,  and  Aurelian's  letter  to  the 
senate,  excusing  the  appearance  of  Zenobia  in  his  triumphal  pro- 
cession. Vopisci,  Hist.  Aug.  Script.,  and  note  9  to  c.  32,  vii,  L.  of 
Eusebius,  Eccl.  Hist.,  Heinichen's  ed. 

^0  Pausanias,  a  cotemporary  of  Antoninus  Pius  and  Aurelius,  in- 
cidentally notices  it,  but  in  a  way  which  would  lead  one  to  suppose 
it  was  insignificant,  oi  de  es  ttji/  IvSiktjp  eairXeovTes  (popnoov  <paaiv 
'EWrjviKUu  Tovs  IvSovs  ayuyifxa  aWa  avraWaao-eadai,  voniaixa  5e  ovk 
iiTiaraadai,  Kai  ravra  XP^^o^  """^  a<pdovov  kui  x^^X^^  trapovros  a<piat. — 
III,  L.  c.  xii,  §  3. 

1'  Rather  inferred  than  expressed.  "  Hs  prennent  les  composes 
de  plantes  medicinales,  en  extraient  les  parties  succulentes  afin 
d'en  composer  des  pates  odorantes  et  ils  vendent  le  residu  prive  de 
Bes  meilleures  qualites  aux  marchands  des  autres  royaumes." — 
Pauthier,  Examen  des  faits  relatifs  au  Thian-Tchu  ou  rinde,p.  23. 

K 


130  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

An  tun  (Marcus  Aurelius),  which  a.d.  166  was  received 
by  and  offered  tribute  to  the  Chinese  sovereign,  ele- 
phants' teeth,  rhinoceros^  horns  and  tortoise  shells.^^ 

But  for  this  embassy  there  is  no  Eoman  authority 
whatever,  and  as  an  embassy  paying  tribute  when 
Marcus  Aurelius  was  emperor,  it  is  simply  impossible. 
And  yet  it  is  so  slightly  noticed,  and  so  little  is  made 
of  it,  that  one  cannot  put  it  away  as  a  mere  invention 
of  the  Chinese  historian  to  magnify  his  country.  Be- 
sides, we  find  that  the  same  writer  records  the  visit  some 
years  later  of  a  Eoman  merchant,^^  one  Lun,  to  the 
Chinese  Court,  and  speaks  of  his  interviews  with  the 
then  Chinese  Emperor,  curious  about  the  songs  and 
manners  of  other  countries,  and  yet  never  speaks  of  him 
as  other  or  more  than  a  merchant.  Surely  then  we  have 
no  reason  to  assume  that  the  Eomans  of  the  so-called 
embassy  had  their  ambassadorial  character  thrust  upon 
them,  they  must  have  taken  it  upon  themselves  for  pur- 
poses of  trade.^* 

12  "  Ce  royaume  de  I'lnde  fait  un  grand  commerce  h  Toccident 
avec  le  Ta-thsin,  I'Empire  Eomain ;  c'est  par  la  mar  surtout." — Id., 
p.  22.  "  Les  liabitans  de  ce  royaume  vont  trfes  souvent  pour  leurs 
relations  de  commerce  jusqu'au  Fou-nan,  Burmah:  au  Jiwan, 
Cochin  Chine :  au  Kie-tchi,  le  Tonquin." — P.  25.  "  La  neuvieme 
des  annees  Yan-ti  de  Houan-ti  de  la  dynastie  des  Han  (a.d.  160), 
Autun  roi  du  Ta-thsin  envoya  une  ambassade  pour  offrir  des  pre- 
sents."— P.  24,  and  in  a  note,  "  Le  tribut  consistait  en  dents  d' ele- 
phant, etc." 

13  *'  Le  cinquieme  des  annees  Hoang-wou  (a.d.  222-278)  un  mar- 
chand  du  Ta-thsin... du  nom  de  Thsin-lun,  Lun  le  Eomain,  vint 
dans  le  Tonquin.  Le  gouverneur  I'accompagna  pres  du  souverain 
Chinois.  Ce  dernier  I'interrogea  sur  les  chants,  les  mceurs  de  son 
pays." — Id.,  p.  25. 

14  Eeinaud,  I'Empire  Eomain,  et  I'Asie  Orientale,  Jour.  Asiat., 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN".  131 

Again,  the  presents  or  tribute  with  which  these  am- 
bassadors approach  the  Celestial  throne,  as  they  are 
products  not  of  Italy  but  of  Africa  or  India,  are  scarcely 
the  presents  with  which  the  Eoman  would  greet  a 
brother  Emperor.  But  on  the  other  hand  they  are  just 
the  sort  of  commodities  which  Alexandrian  merchants 
trading  to  India  would  gather  up  on  a  roving  voyage, 
and  which  as  curious  and  valuable  they  would  be  likely 

1863,  p.  323,  connects  with  this  embassy— for  embassy  he  will  have 
it — a  notice  concerning  silk,  introduced  d  propos  des  hottes,  by 
Pausanias,  at  the  close  of  B.  vi,  c.  26,  Desc.  Grseciae.  He  there  says, 
that  "  silk  is  not  the  produce  of  a  plant,  but  that  it  is  obtained 
from  a  small  animal  about  twice  the  size  of  a  beetle,  which  the 
Greeks  but  not  the  Seres  call  afip.  This  animal  is  like  the  tree- 
spider,  and  like  it  has  eight  legs.  The  Seres  rear  it  in  houses  suited 
to  the  hot  and  cold  seasons,  and  it  works  up  a  thin  thread  which 
it  rolls  about  with  its  feet  (the  beetle).  For  four  years  they  feed 
it  with  millet,  eXvfjLos,  and  on  the  fifth  give  it  a  greenish  reed, 
which  it  eats  greedily  till  it  bursts.  When  it  is  dead,  a  great 
quantity  of  thread  is  found  within  its  body."  I  must  own  that  I 
overlooked  or  put  aside  as  worthless  this  account  of  the  silkworm ; 
but  Reinaud,  with  his  quick  perception  and  great  memory,  saw  all 
its  importance  and  remarked,  that  this  is  the  first  notice  we  have 
both  of  silk  as  an  animal  product,  and  of  the  care  taken  by  the 
Seres  in  rearing  the  silkworm,  and  I  admit  that  Pausanias  in  some 
way  or  another  derived  his  information  from  the  Romans,  who  at  this 
time  visited  China.  Let  me,  however,  express  my  surprise  that 
Pliny,  who  describes  the  bombyx  of  Cos  and  the  thread  obtained 
from  its  cocoon,  and  the  stuff"  made  from  that  thread,  should  have 
clung  to  some  plant  as  the  origin  of  silk  ;  but  then  Pliny  was  but  a 
reader  of  books,  and  perhaps  a  man  of  the  world— not  an  observer 
of  nature ;  and  in  his  account  of  the  bombyx  he  seems,  judging 
from  the  notes  to  the  Delphin  Pliny,  Valpy's,  to  have  borrowed 
from  Aristotle's  Hist.  Animal.  In  these  notes,  speaking  of  the 
same  Bombyx,  Julius  Pollux  (a.d.  134)  is  cited  as  observing  that 
there  are  some  people  who  say  that  the  Seres  collect  their  silk 
from  other  such  animals. — Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  xi,  27,  note. 


132  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FEOM 

to  offer  as  present  or  tribute  to  any  potentate  they  cared 
to  propitiate.  I  look  on  this  embassy  as  the  fraud  of 
Alexandrian  merchants. 

But  it  was  during  the  reigns  of  Severus,  his  son 
Caracalla,  and  the  pseudo-Antonines,  that  Alexandria 
and  Palmyra  were  most  prosperous,  and  that  Eoman  in- 
tercourse with  India  was  at  its  height.  Then  Eoman 
literature  gave  more  of  its  attention  to  Indian  matters, 
and  did  not,  as  of  old,  confine  itself  to  quotations  from 
the  historians  of  Alexander  or  the  narratives  of  the 
Seleucidian  ambassadors,  but  drew  its  information  from 
other  and  independent  sources.  Then  Clemens  Alex- 
andrinus  (a.d.  192,  217),  thus  wrote  of  the  Gymnoso- 
phists ;  "They  are,"  he  says,  " Sarmanai,  or  Brahmins.  Of 
the  Sarmanai,  the  AUobioi  neither  dwell  in  cities  nor 
under  a  roof,  but '  wear  a  vesture  of  bark',  and  live  on 
acorns,  and  drink  water  from  their  hands,  and  know 
neither  marriage  nor  the  procreation  of  children.  And 
they  are  the  Indians^^  who  obey  the  precepts  of  Boutta : 
and  him  for  his  exceeding  majesty  they  honour  as  a 
god."  And  in  another  place,  but  on  the  authority  of 
Alexander  Polyhistor,  he  tells  of  the  Brahmans,^^  how 

15  In  general  rendered  "  And  there  are  Indians/'  etc.  I  sub- 
join the  whole  passage  : — Kat  rwv  'Sap/xavcav  ot  A\Aoj8tot  ('TAo)8tot) 
TTpoffayopevofjLevoi,  ovre  iroKeiS  oiKovcriv,  ovre  (rreyas  exowtrt,  SevSpup  Se 
a^Kpiivvvvrai  <p\oiois  (Menu,  vi,  §  16)  ;  Kat  aKpodpva  (riTovvrai  Kai  y5«p 
rais  x^P^''  Tfivovaiv  ov  •yapLOV,  ov  iraiSoirouav  laaaiv,  ccairep  ol  vw  "EyKpa- 
rrjrai  KaKovjx^voi.  etffi  Se  roiv  Ij/Scwj/  oi  rois  Bovrra  ireiBopLSuoi  ■napayykX- 
ixaaiv  6v  5t'  vnepfioXrjv  aefivoTrjTos  eis  @eov  TertjUTyfao-t.  — Stromata,  I, 
110.     I  beg  attention  to  the  ambiguity  of  the  last  paragraph. 

^^  Bpax/uayot  oure  ffjiipvxov  eaOiovaiv,  ovre  oivov  irivovaiu,  aAA.'  ot  fxfv 
avTwu  Ka6*  cKaarTju  rj/JLcpau,  oos  rjpLsis,  ttjv  rpo<j)r}v  irpoaievraf  eftoi  S'  avrwv, 
Sia  ipwu  TJixepwv  oos  ^rjaiv  A\e^av5pos  d  HoKviarup  €P  roi9  ludiKois'  Kara- 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  133 

"they  neither  drink  wine  nor  taste  of  animal  food;  how- 
some  of  them  eat  daily,  others  but  once  in  three  days  ;^7 
how  from  their  belief  in  a  second  birth,  iraXtr^'yevecnav, 
they  despise  death  and  are  indifferent  to  life ;  and  how 
they  worship  Hercules  and  Pan.  He  says  further  that 
those  called  Semnoi  go  naked,  and  cultivate  truth,  and 
foretell  the  future,  and  worship  a  pyramid  which  is 
supposed  to  cover  the  bones  of  a  god ;  that  neither 
Gymnosophists  nor  Semnoi  marry,  because  marriage 
they  look  upon  as  contrary  to  law  and  nature,  and  they 
therefore  keep  themselves  chaste,  so  do  the  Semnoi 
women  who  devote  themselves  to  a  virgin  life.  He 
adds  that  they  observe  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  through 
them  foretell  the  future." 

The  name  and  precepts  of  Buddha,  and  the  worship 
of  the  pyramid  topes,  recorded  in  these  passages,  are  to 
be  found  in  no  other  ancient  writer  whatever.  If  derived 
originally  from  Megasthenes  as  is  supposed,  it  is  strange 
that  they  have   escaped  the  notice  of  Plutarch  and 

<ppovov(n  Se  Qavarov,  Kai  reap"  ovS^v  Tjyovvrai  ro  ^r)P'  ireidovrai  yap  eivat 
'jra\tyy€V€(nav.  olSe  <T€$ov(tiv  'HpaK\ea  Kai  Uava'  ol  KaXovfievoi  5€  Sejuj/oi 
rwv  IvScDV,  yvfivoi  SiairavTai  top  iravra  fiiov  ovroi  T'r]V  aXrjdeiav  aaKovai 
Kai  irtpi  rcov  fxeWovraiv  irepifirjuvovai,  Kai  affiov<xi  riva  nvpafxiZa  v(p^  rjv 
oana  rivos  @eov  vofii^ovaiv  airoK€i(T6ai.  ovre  Sf  ot  TvfiUoaocpKrTai,  ov6*  ol 
X^yofievoi  Renvoi,  yvvai^i  xP«»'Taf  trapa  <pv(Tiv  yap  roxno  Kai  irapavofiov 
SoKovai'  St'  7ju  aiTiav  a(pas  ayvovs  rripovari'  rrapOevevovai  Se  Kai  ^efxvai. 
BoKovai  irapar-qpeiv  ra  ovpavia,  Kai  Sia  ttjs  rovrwv  tJi\iXii(a<Tt<a%  ruv  fjiiWov- 
ruv  vpofjiavTevfadai  riva. — ih.  iii,  194. 

17  In  the  Prabodhatschandradaja  is  an  allusion  to  this  observance. 
The  scholar  asks  of  his  master  why  the  observers  of  religious  rites 
eat  but  one  meal  in  three  days.  "  Wenn  Essen  und  Trinken  die 
Hauptaufgabe  des  Menschen  ist...denn  warum  wird...das  Leben... 
durch  Bu8subungen...wie  in  drei  Tagen  nur  ein  Mai  speisen, 
gequalt?"...Hirzers  Tr.,  p.  23,  and  Menu,  vi,  18,  etc. 


134  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

Porphyry,  curious  in  such  matters ;  and  still  more  strange 
that,  as  characteristic  of  one  of  the  great  religions  of 
India,  they  should  have  been  passed  over  by  Strabo, 
Diodorus  Siculus,  and  Arrian,  who  in  their  works  have 
embodied  his  Indica,  at  least  that  part  of  it  which  treats 
of  the  sects  and  castes  of  India.  But  the  paragraph 
with  the  name  of  Boutta,  at  the  close  of  the  first  citation, 
is  so  loosely  worded  that  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain 
whether  it  refers  to  the  Sarmanai  previously  mentioned, 
or  to  some  altogether  different  sect.  It  is  besides  so 
clumsily  introduced,  that  it  reads  like  an  afterthought, 
a  fact  thrown  in  that  it  may  not  be  lost,  or  a  piece  of 
information  which  Clemens  had  obtained  from  some 
of  those  Indians  mentioned  by  Dion  as  residents  at  Alex- 
andria,^^ and  which  he  now  tacks  on  to  a  description 
notoriously  taken  from  Megasthenes. 

Of  the  second^^  passage,  all  that  refers  to  the  Semnoi 

^^  Ad  Alexandrines, — dpw  yap  ov  fiovov  'EAArji/as  irap'  vjxiVy  ovV  IraK- 
ovSf  etc.,  etc.,  aWa  koli  BuKTpiovs,  Kai  ^KvOas,  Kai  Uepaas,  Kai  IpSuv 
rivas,  01  (TvvOecevTai  Kai  itap^iaiv  iKaorroTe  vfiiv. — Orat.,  xxxii,  p.  672, 
Eeiske  ed. 

^9  The  term  Sarmanai  Germanai  as  the  name  of  a  Hindu  sect 
was  first  used  by  Megasthenes  (a.d.  302-288),  and  is  found  in 
Strabo  and  Clemens  cited  above ;  that  of  Samanaeoi  belongs  to 
Alexander  Polyhistor,  and  is  found  in  Clemens  (a.d.  193-217)  in  the 
same  section  and  just  before  the  passage  relating  to  the  Gymnoso- 
phists  which  I  have  given  in  the  text :  and  in  Cyril,  cont. 
Julianum  iv  (a.d.  433),  but  is  in  both  writers  the  name  of  the 
philosophers  or  priests  of  Bactria,  and  copied  from  Polyhistor. 
After  Clemens,  who  lived  at  the  close  of  the  second  and  beginning 
of  the  third  century,  it  is  used  by  Bardesanes  (a.d.  217)  to  desig- 
nate for  the  first  time,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  Buddhist  priests  of 
India  j  by  Origen  (a.d.  245-249)  in  the  same  sense,  and  lastly  by 
Hieronymus,  close  of  the  fourth  century  (Epist.  cont.  Jovian,  pt. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  135 

I  am  disposed  to  look  upon  as  an  addition  of  Clemens.^ 
For  though  Alexander  Polyhistor  was  a  great  reader 
and  voluminous  writer,  he  was  a  compiler  merely,  and 
no  more  professed  originality  than  does  an  Encyclo- 
paedia. A  native  too  of  one  of  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia 
Minor,  he  fell  upon  unhappy  times,  and  was  carried 
away  to  Eome  before  mid  age  a  prisoner  and  a  slave, 
and  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  Italy.  Under 
these  circumstances  1  do  not  see  how  he  could  have 
heard  or  learned  any  new  thing  about  India,  anything 

i,  tr.  ii,  xxxix),  and  expressly  borrowed  from  Bardesanes.  But 
to  show  that  both  Clemens  and  Cyril  have  been  writing  from  the 
same  authority,  I  will  place  their  words  side  by  side,  observing 
that  Cyril  expressly  quotes  from  the  Py  thagorick  symbols  of  Poly- 
histor. 

npoearrjaav  Se  avrris  {(f)i\o(TO'  'larropfi  yovu  AXf^avSpos  b  itti' 
ipia%)  Aiyvrrruy  re  ot  vpoiprirai  Kai  KhTiv  TloXvKTTwp  fv  T<p  irept  Tlvda- 
AaavpitDV  ot  XaK^aioi,  Kat  TaKarosv  yopiKuv  (Tvix$o\otv...€(pi\o(TO<priaaP 
ol  ApviSai,  Kai  "Zanavaioi  Ba/c-  Kai  irap*  Aiy inrTiois  ot  KeKXrinevoi 
rpoiu,  KaiKf\T(i)u  ot  <piKo(To<pt](Tav-  irpo<pi)Tai  Kai  fxrjv  Kai  Anavpioov 
Tfs  Kai  Ilepawv  ot  ixayoi  ..IvSeou  t€     Xa\Saioi,Kaira\aTO}v  ot  ApviSai,  Kai 

ot     rviJ.VO(TO(pl(TTai...':iKvdYIS      §6      Kttt       €«    BaKT  p  W  V    T  (i)  P    Tl  €  p  CT  0)  V   2  a- 

Avaxapois  fiv. — Stromat.,  I.  (xavaioi^   Kai   KeXroov  ovk  o\iyoif 

Kai  trapa  Uepeais  ot  Mayot,  Kai  irap' 

IvSois  ot  TvfjLvoaotpKTTai,   KUi  airros 

Avaxapcris     irapa     ^KvOais. — Cyril 

cont.  Julian,  L.  iv,  p.  133,  ed. 

Spanheim's  (a.d.  375  ?). 

^0  Bardesanes  we  examine  at  length  presently.     Origen,  cont. 

Celsum,  I,  24,  speaking  of  the  innate  force  of  words,  cos  no-i  xp<»»^<»t 

AiyvKTiwv  ot  aoipoi  Kai  rwu  irapa  TLepaais  \t.ay<av  ot  \oyioi,  Kantav  trap''  IvZoit 

<pi\oao(j>ovvT(i>v  $paxfJiaP€s  17  ^a/xavaio  i. — Hieronymus,  "  Bardesanes 

vir  Babylonius  in   duo    dogmata    apud    Indos    Gymnosophistas 

dividit,  quorum  alterum  appellat  Bragmanos,  alterum  Samanceos." 

See,  however,  Schwanbeck  in  Miiller's  Hist.  Grsec,  Frag.,  p.  437, 

V.  Ill,  and  Lassen  Ind.  Alterthum,  v.  Ill,  pp.  355-6. 


136  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FKOM 

not  already  contained  in  books.  But  look  now  at 
Clemens  Alexandrinus.  He  lived  in  Alexandria,  then 
in  frequent  communication  with  India,  where  Hindus 
occasionally  resorted.  He  was  besides  a  Christian,  and 
as  a  Christian  he  necessarily  frequented  the  society  of 
artisans  and  merchants,  and  among  them  if  anywhere 
had  opportunities  of  meeting  either  with  Hindus  or 
with  those  who  had  visited  India.  But  could  a  man  of 
his  acquirements  and  eager,  earnest,  and  inquiring  mind 
meet  with  such  men,  and  not  draw  from  them  some  in- 
formation relating  to  India  before  unknown  ?  His  keep- 
ing within  the  well  beaten  path  of  old  facts  would  be  to 
me  as  surprising  as  Polyhistor's  straying  from  it.  Again, 
in  no  known  fragment  of  Polyhistor  are  the  Buddhist 
priests  called  Semnoi;  indeed  the  term  as  appKed  to 
them  is  found  only  in  this  passage.  And  I  can  very 
well  understand  Clemens  choosing  it,  because  in  sound 
it  sufficiently  resembles  the  Tamil  Samana,^^  and  in 
sense  expresses  satisfactorily  the  ideas  attached  to  an 
ancient  priesthood;  and  perhaps  also  because,  though 
unaware  of  their  brotherhood,  he  thus  distinguished  the 
Hindu  Buddhist  from  Polyhistor's  Samanseos  or  Bac- 
trian  priest. 

Then  Philostratus,^^  a  cotemporary  of  Clemens,  pub- 
lished his  romance  of  ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  and  ^lian^^ 

21  Pronounced,  Mr.  J.  H.  Nelson,  C.S.,  Madras,  informs  me,  as 
semen,  the  e  sounded  as  in  Italian.  Boutta  too  he  thinks  more 
closely  allied  to  the  Tamil  Buttha  than  the  Sanscrit  Buddha, 
though  he  would  hesitate  to  derive  it  thence. 

22  Philostratus  published  his  AppoUonius  after  the  death  of 
the  Empress  Julia  Domna,  as  he  himself  states,  consequently  some 
time  after  a.d.  217.— V.  Dio  Cassius,  L.  78,  6,  24. 

23  ^lian  flourished  ad.  225. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN".  137 

his  Variae  Historise,  in  which  are  many  notices  of  Indian 
animals  and  Indian  peoples  and  customs,  but  from  Mega- 
sthenes  and  Ctesias  principally. ^^  And  then  too  Art  em- 
ployed itself  on  Indian  subjects,  as  we  gather  from  Calli- 
stratus'  description  of  the  statue  of  a  drunken  and  reeling 
IIindu.2^  Then  Dio  Cassius  wrote  his  history,  lost  in 
its  entirety,  but  of  which  the  fragments  and  summary 
by  Xiphilinus  sufficiently  attest  the  interest  he  took  in 
all  that  related  to  India.  Then  too  Bardesanes,^^  as  we 
learn  from  the  extracts  preserved  by  Porphyry,^^  gave 
to  the  w^orld  his  Indica,  the  materials  for  which  he  ob- 
tained he  states  from  one  Dandamis  or  Sandanes,  the 
chief  of  some  unrecorded  embassy  to  the  Csesars,  and 
whom  he  met  it  seems  at  Babylon  in  the  reign  of  Anto- 
ninus   of   Emesa,28  Elagabalus    (a.d.   218-222).      He 

2-*  To  this  age  also  probably  belongs  the  UepioSos  Bona,  which 
speaks  of  Thomas'  visit  to  India,  and  tells  of  an  Indian  king, 
Goundaphores,  whose  agent  was  in  the  Eoman  Empire  looking 
out  for  mechanics,  and  who  may  be  identified  with  Gondophares 
of  the  Indo-Parthian  coins,  a  cotemporary  of  the  last  Arsacidan 
kings  (about  a.d.  216)  Thilo,  Acta  St.  Thomse  and  Wilson,  Ariana 
Antiqua.  And  to  this  age  we  may  refer  one  of  the  heresies  of  the 
Christian  Church  introduced  by  and  brought  avo  'Xvpov  r-qs  IlapQias. 
— Bunsen  Analecta  Antenicsena,  i,  p.  378. 

25  Descript.  iv.  ets  ro  IvSov  ayaXfia.  On  the  statue  of  an  Indian 
evidently ;  and  not.  On  the  statue  of  the  Indus,  as  Lassen  renders 
it.— Ind.  Alt.,  Ill,  73.     Callistratus  wrote  about  a.d.  250. 

26  He  speaks  also  of  Indians  idolatrous  and  non-idolatrous  in  his 
Book  of  Fate. 

27  Porphyry,  de  Abstinentid,  iv,  17. 

28  IvSot  oi  eiri  rrjs  fiaaiKeias  tt\s  Avtoduipov  rov  6{  Efieaotv  tis  rriv  "Svpiav 
BapSrjfTavri  rtp  e«  ttjj  Mco-oTroTajUjas  €ts  Koyovs  atpiKOfievoi  f^ryyTjaavro. — 
Stobseus  Physica,  i,  54.  Gaisford's  ed.  This  reading  proposed  by 
Heeren  and  adopted  by  Gaisford.  necessarily,  it  seems  to  me, 
brings  down  our  embassy  to  the  reign  of  Elagabalus  (a.d.  218-222), 


138  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

writes,  that  "  the  Indian  Theosophs,  whom  the  Greeks 
call  Gymnosophists,  are  divided  into  two  sects,  Brah- 
mans  and  Shamans,  Samanseoi.  The  Brahmans  are  one 
family,  the  descendants  of  one  father  and  mother,  and 
they  inherit  their  theology  as  a  priesthood.  The  Sha- 
mans on  the  other  hand  are  taken  from  all  Indian  sects 
indifferently,^^  from  all  who  wish  to  give  themselves  up 
to  the  study  of  divine  things. 

"  The  Brahmans  pay  no  taxes  like  other  citizens,  and 
are  subject  to  no  king.^'^  Of  the  philosophers  among 
them,  some  inhabit  the  mountains,  others  the  banks  of 
the  Ganges.  The  mountain  Brahmans  subsist  on  fruit 
and  cow's  milk,  curdled  with  herbs.^^     The  others  live 

the  only  Antonine  who  can  be  described  as  of  Emesa.  Lassen,  how- 
ever (ut  sup..  Ill,  348),  is  of  opinion  that  it  was  addressed  to  An- 
toninus Pius  (a.d.  158-181,  an  error  for  138-151),  but  as  his  reference 
is  to  Heeren's  ed.,  whose  emendation  I  presume  he  adopts,  I  can- 
not conceive  how  he  arrives  at  this  conclusion. 

28  Megasthenes,  as  quoted  by  both  Arrian  and  Strabo,  had  some 
indistinct  notion  that  the  Indian  Sophistai  or  some  of  them  were 
not  so  bound  to  caste  as  the  other  Indians.  But  Arrian  so  puts  it 
as  if  the  whole  Brahman  caste  was  open.  Mopov  a<piaiv  aveirai 
ao<piarr}v  €k  iravTos  yev^os  yevtadai,  and  this  because  of  the  austerity 
of  their  lives. — Indica,  xi,  7,  xii,  9.  Fr.  Hist.  G-rsec,  II,  pp.  427, 
429.  Didot  ed.  Strabo,  on  the  other  hand,  that  no  man  can  exer- 
cise two  trades,  except  he  be  a  philosopher,  ttAtji/  ei  twv  <pi\oao<pa>tf 
Tis  €17),  and  this  because  of  their  virtue. — ih.,  p.  430.  Diodorus 
omits  the  passage  :  doubtless  it  was  ambiguous. 

^  AA6tToi;p77jTot  yap  ovres  oi  <pi\o<TO(poi  iraarjs  vvovpyias,  ovd'  krepotv 
Kvpifvovaiv  ovd'  v<p'  erepuvbea-no^ovrai. — Diodorus,  II,  400 ;  Fr.  Grsec, 
II,  p.  405.  Menu  says,  *'  A  king,  even  though  dying,  must  not  re- 
ceive any  tax  from  a  Brahman  learned  in  the  Vedas." — cvii,  133. 
"  The  temple  lands  ^^of  Buddhist  priests)  were  invariably  free  from 
royal  duty." — Hardy,  Monachism,  p.  68. 

31  "Buttermilk  may  be  swallowed,  and  every  preparation  of 
buttermilk,"  10  §.  "And  every  mess  prepared  with  barley  or 
wheat,  or  with  dressed  milk,"  25  §,  c.  v,  Menu. 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  139 

on  the  fruit  trees  which  are  found  in  plenty  near  the 
river  and  which  afford  an  almost  constant  succession  of 
fresh  fruits,  and,  should  these  fail,  on  the  self-sown 
wild  rice  that  grows  there.^^  To  eat  any  other  food,  or 
even  to  touch  animal  food,  they  hold  to  be  the  height 
of  impiety  and  uncleanness.^^  Each  man  has  his  own 
cabin,  and  lives  as  much  as  he  can  by  himself,  and 
spends  the  day  and  the  greater  part  of  the  night  in 
prayers  and  hymns  to  the  gods.  And  they  so  dislike 
society,  even  that  of  one  another,  or  much  discourse,  that 
when  either  happens,  they  expiate  it  by  a  retirement 
and  silence  of  many  days.^*     They  fast  often. 

"  The  Shamans,^^  on  the  other  hand,  are,  as  I  said,  an 
elected  body.  Whoever  wishes  to  be  enrolled  in  their 
order  presents  himself  to  the  city  or  village  authorities, 
and  there  makes  cession  of  all  his  property.  He  then 
shaves  his  body,  puts  on  the  Shaman  robe,  and  goes  to 
the  Shamans,^^  and  never  turns  back  to  speak  or  look 

32  "  Let  him  eat  green  herbs,  flowers,  roots,  and  finiits,  etc.,**  § 
13.  "  Let  him  not  eat  the  produce  of  ploughed  land,"  §  16,  c.  vi, 
of  the  Anchorite  ed.  But  as  a  Sannyasi,  "  an  earthen  water-pot, 
the  roots  of  large  trees,  coarse  vesture,  total  solitude, — these  are 
the  characteristics  of  a  Brahman  set  free,"  §  44,  ib. 

33  The  Brahman  student  must  "  abstain  from  flesh  meat,"  §  177, 
ii,  ib.  "  The  Manava  Dharma  affirms  that  the  Brahman  who  eatg 
flesh  loses  instantly  his  rank."— Tr.  El.  As.  Soc,  p.  163,  iii,  v. 

34  As  anchorite,  "  Let  him  live  without  external  fire, — wholly 
silent,"  vi,  25,  ib.  As  Sannyasi,  "  Alone  let  him  constantly  dwell 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  felicity,  observing  the  happiness  of  a  soli* 
tary  man, — without  a  companion,"  ib.,  42. 

36  Samanaioi,  from  the  Pali  Sammana,  found  first  in  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  seemingly  from  Polyhistor,  and  applied  to  the  priests 
of  Bactria. 

86  "  The  priest  can  only  possess  three  robes,"  p.  66.    "  From 


140  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

at  his  wife  and  children  if  he  have  any,  and  never 
thinks  of  them  any  more,  but  leaves  his  children  to  the 
king  and  his  wife  to  his  relations,  who  provide  them 
with  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  Shamans  live  outside 
the  city,  and  spend  the  whole  day  in  discourse  upon 
divine  things.  They  have  houses  and  temples  of  a 
royal  foundation,  and  in  them  stewards,  who  receive 
from  the  king^''  a  certain  allowance  of  food,  bread,  and 
vegetables  for  each  convent.  When  the  convent  bell 
rings,^^  all  strangers  then  in  the  house  withdraw,  and 
the  Shamans  enter  and  betake  themselves  to  prayer. 
Prayer  ended,  at  the  sound  of  a  second  bell  the  servants 
place  before  each  individual,  for  two  never  eat  together, 
a  dish  of  rice ;  but  to  any  one  who  wants  variety  they 
give  besides  either  vegetables  or  fruit.  As  soon  as  they 
have  done  dinner,  and  they  hurry  over  it,  they  go  out  to 
their  usual  occupations.  They  are  not  allowed  to 
marry  or  to  possess  property.     They  and  the  Brahmans 

the  commencement  of  his  novitiate  he  is  shaved/'  p.  112.  "  The 
wearing  of  the  robe  is  imperative,"  pp.  114,  122.  Hardy,  East. 
Monachism. 

87  The  regular  and  usual  mode  of  obtaining  food  is  "  to  take  the 
alms  bowl  from  house  to  house,"  Hardy,  ut  sup.,  94,  but  as  we 
may  gather  from  the  Saored  Books  of  Ceylon  and  the  Legend  of 
Anepidu  (Hardy,  Monachism,  p.  68,  and  Buddhism,  p.  218),  land 
and  food  were  also  provided  by  kings  and  rich  men  for  monas- 
teries ;  indeed  under  certain  circumstances  the  priest  is  enjoined 
to  refuse  the  food  "  that  is  given  statedly  to  a  temple." — Id.,  Mo- 
nachism, p.  97. 

38  So  in  the  legend  of  S^mgha  :  "  Au  bout  de  quelque  temps  le 
son  de  la  plaque  de  metal  qu'on  frappe  pour  appeler  les  religieux 
s'etait  fait  entendre,  chacun  d'eux  tenant  son  vase  a  la  main  vient 
s'asseoir  a  son  rang." — Burnouf,  Introd.  a  I'Hist.  du  Bouddhisme, 
p.  320. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  141 

are  so  honoured  by  the  Indians,  that  even  the  king  will 
come  to  them  to  solicit  their  counsel  in  matters  of 
moment,  and  their  intercession  with  the  gods  when 
danger  threatens  the  country." 

"  Both  Shamans  and  Brahmans  have  such  a  notion  of 
death,  that  they  impatiently  bear  with  life,  and  view  it 
but  as  a  necessary  though  burdensome  service  imposed 
upon  them  by  nature.  They  hasten  therefore  to  free 
the  soul  from  the  body.^^    And  often  when  a  man  is 

39  Onesicritus  says  of  them  when  suffering  from  disease,  Attr- 
Xi(J"rop  5'  avTois  vofii^fadai  voaov  awfxariKrjW  rov  S'  virovorjcravTa  /ca0'  avrov 
rovTo,  e^ayeiv  eavrov  Sia  trvpos,  vqaavra  'iTvpav...aKi,vii7ov  Se  Kaieadai. — 
Strabo,  xv,  65.  Pomponius  Mela  more  generally,  "  At  ubi  senectus 
aut  morbus  incessit,  procul  a  caeteris  abeunt  mortemque... nihil 
anxie  expectant... Prudentiores...non  expectant  eam  sed  ingerendo 
semet  ignibus  Iseti  et  cum  gloria  arcessunt." — III,  vii,  40.  "  On 
voit...dans  I'lnde  des  hommes  se  bruler  sur  un  bTicher...Cet  usage 
vient  de  la  croyance...a  la  metempsycose." — Eeinaud,  Eel.  des 
Voyageurs  Arabes,  I,  p.  120.  Yet  Menu  rather  discountenances, 
except  in  sickness,  voluntary  deaths.  "If  he  has  an  incurable 
disease"  (for  an  example  see  Eadja-Tarangini,  i,  311-12,  note), 
"  let  him  advance  in  a  straight  line  towards  the  invincible  north- 
east point,  feeding  on  air  and  water  till  his  mortal  frame  totally 
decay,  vii,  31 ;  but  45  ih.,  "  Let  him  not  wish  for  life,  let  him  expect 
his  appointed  time  as  a  herd  expects  his  wages."  Similarly  the 
Buddhist.  "  The  rahats  do  not  desire  to  live,  nor  do  they  wish  to 
die;  they  wait  patiently  for  the  appointed  time." — Hardy,  E. 
Men.,  287.  But  from  the  answer  of  Punna  (Puma)  to  Buddha, 
"  There  are  some  priests  who  from  various  causes  are  tired  of  life, 
and  they  seek  opportunities  whereby  their  lives  may  be  taken, 
but  this  course  I  shall  avoid"  {id.,  Buddhism,  p.  260) ;  and  from 
the  fact  that  the  perfected  priest  when  "  at  the  point  of  death 
would  cause  his  body  to  be  spontaneously  burnt"  (id.,  Monachism, 
261),  we  may  presume  that  voluntary  deaths  among  priests  even 
in  Buddha's  time  were  not  unfrequent  and  permissible  on  some 
occasions,  i.  e.,  were  as  among  the  Brahmans  not  very  strictly  pro- 
hibited, and  that  Megasthenes  very  fairly  states  both  the  doctrine 


142  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

well  in  health,  and  no  evil  whatever  presses  upon  him, 
he  will  give  notice  of  his  intention  to  quit  the  world, 
and  his  friends  will  not  try  to  dissuade  him  from  it,  but 
rather  account  him  happy,  and  give  him  messages  for 
their  dead  relations ;  so  firm  and  true  is  the  conviction 
of  this  people  that  souls  after  death  have  intercourse 
with  one  another.  When  he  has  received  all  his  com- 
missions, in  order  that  he  may  quit  the  body  in  all 
purity,*^  he  throws  himself  into  a  burning  pile,  and  dies 
amid  the  hymns  of  the  assembled  crowd.  And  his 
nearest  friends^^  dismiss  him  to  his  death  more  will- 
ingly than  we  our  fellow -citizens  when  about  to  pro- 
ceed on  some  short  journey.  They  weep  over  them- 
selves that  they  must  continue  to  live,  and  deem  him 
happy  who  has  thus  put  on  immortality.  And  among 
neither  of  these  sects,  as  among  the  Greeks,  has  any 
sophist  yet  appeared  to  perplex  them  by  asking, 
'If  everybody  did  this,  what  would  become  of  the 
world?'" 

Thus  far  Bardesanes  on  the  Gymnosophists.   To  form 

and  the  practice,  Ovk  eivai  doyfxa  cfyriaiv  eavrous  e^ayeiv  rovs  Se  iroi- 
ovpras  Tovro  peaviKovs  KpivcffOai. — Geog.  Hist.  Grsec,  II,  439. 

*o  Megasthenes  ascribes  no  particular  virtue  to  the  death  by  fire : 
it  is  merely  the  death  preferred  by  fiery  spirits,  tows  5€  irvpttxrus  as 

TTVpudoVfliVOVS,  ih. 

^'^  The  Relation  des  Yoyageurs  Arabes,  ninth  century,  thus  de- 
scribes one  of  these  self-immolations.  The  man  "  se  met  a  courir 
dans  les  marches  ayant  devant  lui  des  cymbales  et  entoure  de  sa 
famille  et  ses  proches."...A  crown  of  burning  coals  is  placed  upon 
his  head. . . "  Le  homme  marche  la  t^te  en  feu. .  .et  pourtant  il  marche 
comme  si  de  rien  n'etait,  et  on  n'aper^oit  sur  lui  aucun  signe 
d'emotion :  enfin,  il  arrive  devant  le  bucher  et  s'y  precipite^" — 
Eeinaud,  i,  122. 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  143 

any  just  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  information,  we 
must  compare  it  with  the  accounts  given  by  more  an- 
cient writers.  The  companions  of  Alexander  speak  of 
the  Indian  sophists  and  of  them  as  divided  into  classes, 
but  nowhere  mention  the  Sarmanai^^  by  name.  Thus 
Aristobulus,^  of  two  Brahmans  he  saw  at  Taxila 
and  who  in  the  presence  of  Alexander  displayed  each  in 
his  own  way  his  powers  of  endurance,  remarks  that 
while  the  younger  wore  all  his  hair,  the  elder  was 
shaved.^  And  Nearchus*^  distinguishes  between  the 
Brahmans  who  are  engaged  in  political  life  and  are 
councillors  of  the  king,  and  those  who  give  themselves 
up  to  the  study  and  contemplation  of  nature,  as  Cala- 
nus.  He  adds,  that  with  these  last  women  philosophise, 
and  that  all  lead  austere  lives.  With  Megasthenes  as  we 
know  him  from  Strabo,  Diodorus  Siculus,  and  Arrian,*^ 
begins  our  knowledge  of  the  Sarmanai.  Of  the  philoso- 
phers generally  he  says  they  do  no  labour,  pay  no  taxes, 
and  are  subject  to  no  king  ;  that  they  are  present  at  all 
sacrifices  whether  public  or  private,  and  preside  over  all 

^  Sarmanai,  Sans,  ^ramana,  used  by  Megasthenes  and  his 
copyists. 

43  From  Strabo,  xv,  I,  61. 

^*  The  shaved  head  would  imply  a  Buddhist  priest,  described  in 
the  Prabodhatschandradaja  as  "  Kahlgeschirner,  Kopfbiischelver- 
zierter,  Haarausraufer,"  p.  39,  and  whoever  compares  the  whole 
account  of  this  shaved  Brahman,  how  he  came  to  Alexander  and 
followed  him  to  the  end,  with  Onesicritus's  story  of  Calanus — save 
that  no  mention  is  made  of  this  Brahman's  voluntary  death — will 
be  inclined  to  think  that  he  and  Calanus  are  one  and  the  same 
person. — Strabo,  xv,  I,  65. 

45  Strabo,  ih.,  66. 

46  Strabo,  xv,  I.    Diodorus  Siculus,  II,  35.    Arrian,  Indica,  vii. 


144  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

funeral  rites  f  and  that  on  New  Year's  Day  tliey  meet 
in  tlie  king's  palace  and  there  make  known  the  future 
of  the  year,  its  events  and  harvests,  and  that  he  who 
thrice  fails  in  his  predictions  is  condemned  to  a  life-long 
silence.  These  philosophers  he  divided  into  Brahmans 
and  Sarmanai. 

Of  these  the  Brahmans  were  the  most  honoured, 
because  their  opinions  were  the  most  fixed  and  uniform. 
The  Brahman's  education  began  even  in  his  mother's 
womb.  During  the  period  of  gestation  she  was  soothed 
by  songs  and  chaunts  in  praise  of  continence,  which  in 
proportion  as  they  won  her  pleased  attention  bene-r 
ficially  influenced  her  future  offspring.  After  the  child's 
birth  and  as  he  grew  in  years  he  was  passed  on  from 
one  preceptor  to  another,  until  he  was  old  enough  to 
become  an  auditor  of  the  philosophers.  These  lived 
frugally,  abstained  from  animal  food  and  women,  and  in 
a  grove  outside  the  city  spent  their  days  in  earnest 
discourse,  communicating  their  knowledge  to  all  who 
chose  to  listen.  But  in  their  presence  the  novice  was 
not  permitted  to  speak,  or  hawk,  or  spit,  under  the 
penalty  of  one  day's  banishment  from  their  society. 
At  the  age  of  thirty-seven  his  student  life  ceased.^^ 

47  Menu,  III,  124. 

48  ('  The  discipline  of  a  student  in  tlie  three  Vedas  may  be  con- 
tinued for  thirty-six  years  in  the  house  of  his  precepter,  or  for  half 
that  time/'  etc.  Menu,  III,  1.  That  on  his  return  home  he  lived 
more  laxly  and  elegantly  may  be  gathered  from  §§3,  61,  62, 
ife.,  and  iv,  34.  In  the  chapter  on  Diet,  §§  25-35,  are  the  rules  to 
be  observed  in  eating  flesh  meat.  Among  the  Jains,  "  A  student 
till  he  is  married  should  tie  only  a  thread  round  his  loins,  with  a 
rag  to  cover  his  nakedness."  But  "  as  soon  as  he  is  married,  then 
he  may  dress  properly  at  his  pleasure." — As.  Eesear.  ix.  248. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  145 

The  Brahman  then  returned  to  his  home,  lived  more 
freely,  wore  gold  rings  and  silk,  and  ate  the  flesh  of 
such  animals  as  were  of  no  service  to  man,  abstaining 
however  from  pungent  and  highly  seasoned  food.  He 
married  too  as' many  wives  as  he  could,  for  the  sake  of 
offspring,  but  did  not  admit  them  to  a  fellowship  in  his 
philosophy. 

Of  the  Sarmanai,  he  writes  that  the  Hylobioi  were 
the  most  honoured.  They  dwelt  in  the  w^oods,  and 
subsisted  on  leaves  and  wild  fruits,  "  wore  a  vesture  of 
bark,"*^  and  abstained  from  wine  and  venery.  Through 
messengers  they  advised  with  the  king  on  the  causes  of 
things,  and  w^ere  employed  by  him  as  his  intercessors 
before  the  gods.  Next  to  them  were  the  physicians. 
They  too  lived  abstemiously,  but  not  in  the  open  air. 
They  ate  rice  and  flour,  which  they  seem  to  have  got  by 
begging.  They  made  barren  women  fruitful.  They 
healed  by  diet  rather  than  by  medicine,  and  of  medica- 
ments preferred  cataplasms  and  unguents.  Both  they 
and  the  Hylobioi  would  remain  a  whole  day  in  the 
same  posture.  Others  were  diviners,  and  skilled  in  the 
rites  to  be  observed  towards  the  dead,  and  they  wan- 
dered as  mendicants  about  the  towns  and  villages.  And 
yet  another  class,  but  more  urbane  and  better  nurtured 
than  these  last,  was  like  them  occupied  with  the  things 
of  Hades,  in  so  far  at  least  as  they  conduced  to  piety 
and  a  holy  life.  With  some  of  these  Sarmanai  the 
women  are  allowed  to  philosophise^^  under  a  vow  of 
chastity.  •  '^ 

*3  See  on  the  third  and  fourth  Orders.    Menu,  vi,  6,  etc. 
^  Of  the  Sanyasi,  "Let  him  repair  to  the  lonely  wood,  coramit- 

L 


146  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

Another  writer,  quoted  also  by  Strabo^^  towards  the' 
close  of  the  same  chapter,  speaks  of  the  Pranmse^^  (no 
doubt  for  Sramnae  as  Garmanai  for  Sarmanai),  as  of  a 
class  opposed  to  the  Bralimans,  as  argumentative^^  and 
contentious,  and  as  jeering  the  Brahmans  for  their  love 
of  physiology  and  astronomy.  They  are  Mountain  or 
Gymnete  or  Political  or  Eural  (Trpoo-^coptot).  The  Moun- 
tain Pramnse  are  clad  in  skins,  and  carry  wallets  full  of 
roots  and  medicaments,  and  in  their  cures  use  charms 
and  incantations.  The  Gymnetes  as  their  name  implies 
go  naked,  and  for  the  most  part  live  in  the  open  air  till 
their  thirty -seventh  year.  They  admit  women  to  their 
society,  but  both  they  and  the  women  are  strictly 
chaste.  The  PoliticaP*  and  Eural  classes  live,  the  one 
in  the  city  and  are  clad  in  silks;  the  other  in  the 
country  and  "wear  for  their  mantles  the  liides  of 
goats." 

ting  the  care  of  his  wife  to  her  sons,  or  accompanied  by  her,  if  she 
choose  to  attend  him.*'— i6.,  3  §. 

'^^  Geogr.,  XV,  I,  70. 

^2  In  a  paper  on  the  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus,  I  find  that 
the  late  Professor  Wilson  derives  the  term  Pramnse,  from  Pra- 
mana,  proof,  and  inclines  to  think  that  they  were  Bauddhas ;  the 
Sarmanai,  on  the  other  hand,  ascetics  generally.  As  however  in 
his  later  years  he  identified,  I  believe,  the  Sarmanai  with  the 
Buddhist  Shamans,  his  great  authority  can  scarcely  be  brought 
to  bear  against  the  view  I  have  taken. — As.  Ees.,  xvii,  pp. 
279-280. 

53  So  in  the  legend  of  Samgha,  when  in  his  wanderings  he  finds 
a  hermitage  with  five  hundred  Eishis,  to  avoid  receiving  him  they 
say  one  to  another,  "  Continuous  de  nous  livrer  a  nos  occupations 
ordinaires  :  ces  Cramanas  fils  de  Cakya  sont  de  grands  parleurs." 
— Burnouf,  ut  sup.,  323. 

54  Menu,  vii,  37,  and  compare  54  and  58,  ib. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  147 

It  would  appear  from  these  accounts  that  the  com- 
panions of  Alexander  knew  of  Brahmans  only,  Mega- 
sthenes  and  our  anonymous  author  of  Brahmans  and 
Sarmanai,  and  that  they  divided  the  Sarmanai  into  four 
classes.  But  of  these  four  classes,  it  seems,  that  while 
the  first  two  in  both  writers  pretty  fairly  correspond 
with  one  another,  the  first  of  one  with  the  second  of 
the  other,  the  two  last  have  no  one  point  in  common, 
and  can  scarcely  be  intended  to  represent  the  same 
members  of  the  same  society;  indeed,  the  Political  and 
Eural  Pramnse  are  much  more  like  the  Brahmans  of 
Megasthenes  than  his  Sarmanai — the  one  to  his  Brahmans 
whose  novitiate  or  student  life  has  ceased ;  and  the 
other  to  those  of  them  who  are  philosophers.  More- 
over the  Gymnetes,  who  go  naked  and  live  in  the  open 
air,  and  the  Hylobioi  clad  in  bark  and  subsisting  on 
leaves  and  wild  fruits,  bear  some  resemblance  indeed  to 
the  Digambara  of  the  Jains^^  and  the  Brahman  Sann- 
yasi  as  painted  by  Menu,  but  very  little  to  the  Shaman 
or  Buddhist  priest  as  we  know  him,  who  wears  and  is 
obliged  to  wear  a  robe  of  a  particular  stuff  and  colour, 
and  who  lives  on  rice  and  grain  generally,  but  who  is 
also  permitted  when  in  bad  health  to  eat  ghee,  oil, 
sugar,  honey,  and  even  flesh  meat.^^  Again,  the  anony- 
mous author  speaks  of  the  Pramnae  in  no  very  favour- 
able terms,  much  as  Brahmans  might  be  expected  to 

^  In  tlie  Prabod'h  Chandradaya  the  Digambara  is  thus  de- 
scribed :  "  His  disgustful  form  is  besmeared  with  ordure,  his  hair 
in  wild  disorder,  his  body  naked  and  horrible  to  the  view."— Act 
III,  Taylor's  trs. 

^6  Hardy,  Monachism,  p.  92. 


148  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

speak  of  Buddhists ;  but  Megastlienes  of  the  Sarmanai 
with  a  respect,  an  admiration  which  are  so  extra- 
ordinary for  a  resident  at  the  court  of  a  Brahminical 
sovereign,  Chandragupta,  that  one  may  very  fairly 
question  whether  his  Sarmanai  were  indeed  intended 
for  Buddhist  priests.^^ 

Take  now  Bardesanes'  account.  His  Brahmans  are 
hurriedly  and  superficially  sketched,  as  if  his  pen  had 
been  guided  by  a  Buddhist  hand.  His  division  of  them 
into  Mountain  and  Eiver^^  is  unmeaning — really  a  dis- 
tinction without  a  difference,  for  both  led  the  same 
ascetic  lives  in  the  same  sort  of  solitude.  But  his 
Samanaeoi  or  Shamans  are  the  Buddhist  priests  of  our 
day.  He  shows  us  their  order  open  to  all  who  wish  to 
take  upon  themselves  its  duties.  But  to  enter  it  the 
aspirant  must  give  up  wife  and  children  and  property. 
He  must  shave  his  body  and  put  on  the  yellow  robe, 
and  then  retire  to  some  vihara^^  where  having  made 
vows  of  chastity  and  poverty  he  lives  supported  by  the 
alms  of  kings  and  the  pious  rich,  and  is  thus  enabled 

s7  (^ramanas,  evidently  Brahmans,  accompany  Arjouna  on  his 
twelveyears'  retreat  in  the  forest.— Mahabharata,  ii,  237.  Fauche,  tr. 

^  Corresponding  with  the  *'  Mountain  and  Plain"  Brahmans, 
probably,  of  Megasthenes. — Strabo,  ut  sujp. 

^9  In  the  early  days  of  Buddhism,  according  to  the  "  Book  of  the 
Twelve  Observances"  (Burnouf,  ut  sup.,  304),  another  mode  of  life 
prevailed.  "  L' obligation  de  se  retirer  dans  la  solitude  des  forets, 
celle  de  s'asseoir  aupres  des  troncs  d'arbres,  celle  de  vivre  en  plein 
air. .  .sont  certainement  trois  regies  primitives." — Id.,  p.  311.  Hardy 
says,  "  It  was  an  ordinance  of  Buddha  that  the  priests,  who  were 
then  supposed  to  dwell  most  commonly  in  the  wilderness,  should, 
during  the  three  months  of  the  rainy  season,  reside  in  a  fized  habi- 
tation."—Monachism,  282,  and  Burnouf,  285-6. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  140 

to  pass  his  days  in  prayer  and  discourse  on  heavenly 
things.  His  manner  of  life  is  decent,  orderly,  and 
temperate  even  in  its  austerity,  and  his  retirement  is  at 
once  cheerful  and  improving,  and  contrasts  favourably 
with  the  sullen  loneliness  of  the  Brahman.  Tor  though 
the  Brahmans  have  their  agraharas^^  where  the  ordinary 
members  of  their  caste  are  found  collected  together,  and 
though  the  Buddhist  ascetic  notwithstanding  his  con- 
vents occasionally  retires  to  the  solitude  of  the  forest ; 
yet  is  Bardesanes'  account  of  the  two  priesthoods  in 
this  particular  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  the  two 
religions.  In  it  we  see  the  Brahman,  who  lives  by  him- 
self and  for  himself,  with  his  strong  will  conquering 
the  wants  and  appetites  of  his  body,  but  indifferent  to 
the  wants  and  miseries  of  his  fellows ;  and  in  it  the 
Buddhist  not  less  earnest  in  self-sacrifice,  but  not 
neglectful  of  the  social  duties,  cultivating  a  kind  and 
genial  nature,  and  knitting  his  own  good  to  the  good 
of  mankind. 

But  Bardesanes  also  represents  both  Brahmans  and 
Shamans  as  willingly  devoting  themselves  to  death  by 
fire.  The  self-cremation  of  widows  of  the  higher  castes 
was,  within  even  a  few  years  and  until  forbidden  by 
law,  no  uncommon  sight  in  India;  but  among  men, 
Brahmans,  this  sort  of  death  has  long  fallen  into  disuse. 
History  tells  of  a  Calanus,  who  with  much  parade  and 


^  "  Agrahara  est  le  nom  de  tout  terrain  ou  de  tout  village  par- 
ticuli^reraent  affecte  aux  Brahmanes.  Dans  le  sud  de  rindc.on 
ne  trouve  presque  pas  d'endroit  sans  un  agrahara  habite  par  des 
Brahmanes  seulement."— Eadja  Tarangini,  I,  p.  348,  note.  Troyer 
trs. 


150  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

of  Ms  own  free  will  died  by  fire  in  the  presence  of 
Alexander  and  his  army ;  and  of  a  Cumarilla,^^  who  to 
purify  himself  from  the  slaughter  of  heretical  Buddhists 
ascended  the  funeral  pile.  But  in  modern  times  another 
form  of  suicide  has  been  preferred.  The  Hindu  pilgrim 
now  toils  up  the  snowy  heights  of  the  Himalaya  to  the 
sacred  source  of  the  Ganges,  there  to  die ;  or  he 
commits  himself  to  its  stream,  and  thus  perishes  in  its 
holy  waters.  He  suffers  and  dies  to  ensure  to  himself 
a  happy  birth  in  his  next  existence.  The  Buddhist 
also  has  freely  chosen  the  death  by  fire  as  before 
Augustus.  And  if  ever  Brahmans  did  so  choose  to  die, 
and  if  these  their  deaths  worked  at  all  on  the  religious 
feelings  of  the  people,  I  have  no  doubt  that  for  every 
Brahman  who  so  died  two  Buddhists  stepped  forward 
to  die  beside  him,  but  with  other  and  higher  aims. 
They  died  not  for  themselves,  but  for  the  honour  of 
their  creed.  They  died  as  Buddha,  who  in  a  former 
existence  laid  himself  down  before  a  hungry  tiger ;  as 
the  Arya  Samgha,^^  who  flung  himself  into  the  troubled 
sea  to  save  the  degraded  Nagas;  as  Purna,^^  who  to 
preach  his  master's  law  went  forth  to  an  expected 
death.  They  died  as  they  had  lived,  for  others'  good. 
Their  death  was  but  a  last  and  crowning  self-sacrifice. 
Except  in  this  sense,  a  voluntary  death  is  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  their  religion  and  incompatible  with  its 
duties. 

But  the  Indian  ambassadors  also  told  Bardesanes  of 

61  Tr.  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society,  I,  441. 

6-  Burnouf,  Introduction  a  I'Histoire  du  Bouddhisme,  p.  317. 

63  zd,^  ib,^  pp.  253-4. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN..  151 

a  lake  in  their  country,  known  as  the  Lake  of  Proba- 
tion,^ and  of  the  use  they  make  of  it.  When  any  one 
is  accused  of  a  crime  and  insists  upon  his  innocence, 
the  Brahmans  ask  liim  if  he  will  undergo  the  trial  by 
water.  If  he  refuse,  he  is  sent  away  and  punished  as 
guilty.  If  he  consent,  they  bring  him  down  to  this 
lake,  and  to  check  frivolous  or  malicious  charges  they 
bring  his  accusers  down  with  him.  Together  they  go 
into  the  water,  which  is  knee-deep  for  everybody,  and 
together  pass  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake.  The 
innocent  man  walks  along  without  any  fear,  and  is 
never  wet  above  the  knees ;  but  for  the  guilty,  the 
water  rises  and  rises  till  it  is  quite  over  his  head,  and 
he  is  then  dragged  out  by  the  Brahmans,  who  hand  him 
over  to  be  punished  in  any  way  short  of  death.  The 
Indian  however  rarely  pushes  matters  to  this  extremity; 
he  too  much  fears  the  ordeal  by  water. 

But  besides  this  lake  for  voluntary,  they  have  also 
another  to  try  both  voluntary  and  involuntary  offences  ; 
in  fact  to  probe  a  man's  whole  life.  Of  this  lake  Barde- 
sanes,  and  I  will  quote  his  very  words,  has  left  the 
following  account: — "  In  a  very  high  mountain,  situated 
pretty  nearly  in  the  middle  of  the  earth,  there  was  as 
he  heard  a  large  natural  cave,  in  which  was  to  be  seen 


^*  Trover,  in  his  notes  to  the  Eadja  Tarangini,  I,  pp.  361-66, 
describes  several  sacred  and  extraordinary  fountains  in  Cashmere 
which  the  credulity  of  the  people,  favoured  by  their  distance  and 
inaccessibility,  may  have  easily  worked  up  into  the  lakes  of  Bar- 
desanes.  See  also  Ctesias's  account  of  a  fountain,  the  waters  of 
which  became  solid,  and  which  when  given  to  drink  as  water  made 
one  tell  everything  one  ever  did. — Photius,  147  and  155. 


152  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

a  statue,^^  ten  or  perhaps  twelve  cubits  high,  standing 
upright  with  its  hands  folded  crosswise ;  and  the  right 
half  of  its  face,  its  right  arm  and  foot,  in  a  word  its 
whole  right  side  was  that  of  a  man ;  its  left,  that  of  a 
woman  ;^  and  the  indissoluble  union  of  these  two  in- 
congruous halves  in  one  body  struck  all  who  saw  the 
statue  with  wonder.  On  its  right  breast  was  engraved 
the  sun,  on  its  left  the  moon;  on  its  two  arms  were 
artistically  sculptured  a  host  of  angels,  mountains,  a 
sea  and  a  river  together  with  the  ocean  and  plants  and 
living  things,  all  that  is.  And  the  Indians  told  him 
that  God,  after  he  had  created  the  world,  gave  this 
statue  to  his  son^''  as  a  visible  exemplar  of  his  creation. 

^  The  Eadja-Tarangini  has  a  passage  which  reminds  one  of  this 
cave  and  statue.  "  La  possession  de  la  jouissance  de  la  beatitude 
eternelle  devient  le  partage  de  ceux  qui  dans  Tinterieur  du  sanc- 
tuaire  de  Papasudana  (qui  detruit  tout  peche)  touchent  I'image  de 
bois  de  I'epoux  Uma.  La  deesse  Sandya  entretient  dans  cette 
niontagne  aride  I'eau  dans  laquelle  on  reconnait  ce  qui  est  con- 
forme  et  ce  qui  ne  Test  pas  a  la  vertu  et  au  vice." — I,  32,  33, 
Slokas.  Of  this  passage,  however.  Professor  Goldstiicker  has 
favoured  me  with  the  following  translation  : — "  There  those  who 
touch  the  wooden  image  of  Siva  standing  in  the  interior  of  the 
sacred  place  Papasudana,  attain  as  their  reward  worldly  enjoy- 
ment and  final  bliss,  32.  There  on  the  waterless  mountain  the 
goddess  of  twilight  (the  wife  of  Siva)  places  water  to  show  to  the 
virtuous  that  which  will  benefit  (agree  with),  and  to  the  wicked 
that  which  will  injure  (disagree  with)  them,"  33. 

66  "  La  reunion  de  Civa  et  de  Parvati  dans  un  seul  corps  est  le 
theme  de  Tin  vocation  par  laquelle  commence  chaque  livre  du 
Eadja-Tarangini... Cette  forme  est  I'objet  d'une  grande  veneration 
dans  rinde.  Je  rappellerai  parmi  les  images... de  I'ile  d'Ele- 
phanta  une  statue  colossale,  representant  Civa  moitie  homme  et 
moitie  femme  avec  une  seule  poitrine." — Radj.,  II,  pp.  326,  328. 

67  TovTov  TOP  avbpiavTa  (ftaai  beSaiKeyai  rov  deov  rcf  vlcp  6ir7)viKa  top 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  153 

And  I  asked  them,  adds  Bardesanes,  of  what  this  statue 
was  made.     And  Sandanes  assured  me,  and  the  others 

Kofffjiov  cKTt^fv. — Stoboeus,  Physica,  Gaisford's  ed.,  p.  54.  This  ex- 
pression indicates  a  Christian  author,  and  indeed  Bardesanes  has 
been  identified  with  the  great  heresiarch  of  that  name,  who  lived 
in  the  second  and  third  centuries,  and  who  gained  great  celebrity 
by  a  work  on  Fate.  In  this  case  the  Christian  author  was  still 
living  (A.D.  218,  222).  Porphyry  (a.d.  233,  304)  says  of  the  Barde- 
sanes he  quotes,  that  "he  lived  in  the  time  of  our  fathers."  But 
the  Christian  Bardesanes  presented  his  book,  Cedrenus  of  the 
eleventh  century  affirms,  to  Antoninus  Pius  (a.d.  138,  161),  and 
Epiphanius  (ad.  Heres.,  II,  3G,  II,  v.  p.  477)  speaks  of  him  as 
faithful  to  the  Church  up  to  the  death  of  Antoninus  Yerus  (a.d. 
169),  and  of  this  book  as  of  one  of  his  orthodox  works;  but  this 
book,  Eusebius  (a.d.  324)  asserts  (Hist.  Eccl.,  iv,  24,  30),  he  pre- 
sented to  Marcus  Antoninus,  and  further  adds  that  he  wrote  it  in 
consequence  of  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  by  Marcus  (a.d. 
107,  177),  and  about  the  time  Soter,  Bishop  of  Rome,  died  (a.d. 
179).  Now  between  the  earliest  and  latest  of  these  dates,  the 
death  of  Antoninus  Pius  and  the  accession  of  Elagabalus,  there 
elapsed  fifty-seven  years,  and  our  author  must  either  have  been 
very  young  when  he  wrote  his  work  on  Fate,  or  very  old  when  he 
published  his  Indica.  Again,  the  Edessene  Chronicle  ( Assemanni, 
Bib.  Orient.,  i,  p.  47,  note,  and  389,  note),  gives  the  precise  date 
of  his  birth,  July  11,  a.d.  154.  On  this  authority  he  must  have 
been  seven  years  old  when  Antoninus  Pius  died,  and  twenty-five 
when  Soter.  And  at  twenty-five  he  might  have  written  his  book 
on  Fate,  and  at  sixty-four  his  Colloquy  with  the  Indian  Ambassa- 
dors. But  of  late  years  this  "  Book  of  Fate,"  or  rather  "  Book  of 
the  Laws  of  Countries,"  has  been  found  in  the  Syriac  original,  and 
in  1855  the  Oriental  Translation  Fund  published  it  in  its  entirety, 
together  with  a  translation  by  the  Eev.  Mr.  Cureton.  The  work 
is  in  the  shape  of  a  dialogue.  Two  youths  who  have  been  dis- 
coursing on  "  fate,  free-will,  fore-knowledge  absolute,"  meet  with 
Bardesanes,  and  appeal  to  his  superior  learning  and  wisdom.  They 
address  him  sometimes  as  lord-^-a  homage  paid  perhaps  to  his  rank 
and  relationship  with  the  Abgari — and  sometimes  as  father,  a 
deference  due  only  to  his  age  and  experience.  He  too  alludes  and 
appeals  to  former  works  of  his,  p.  5.    "  For  it  has  been  said  by  me 


154  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

confirmed  liis  words,  that  no  man  could  tell ;  that  it  was 
not  gold  or  silver,  nor  yet  brass  or  stone,  nor  indeed  any 

in  another  place."  When  he  wrote  this  work,  then,  he  must  have 
been  a  man  of  at  least  mid  age,  and  either  not  born  a.d.  154,  or 
his  book  not  written  a.d.  179.  Again,  in  the  book  itself  are 
allusions  which  may  assist  us  in  fixing  its  date.  In  p.  30,  "  Be- 
cause as  yesterday  the  Romans  took  Arabia  and  abrogated  aU 
their  ancient  laws,  and  more  especially  that  circumcision  with 
which  they  circumcised."  Mr.  Cureton,  Pref.  iii,  is  of  opinion  that 
this  passage  refers  to  the  conquest  of  Arabia  by  Marcus  Aurelius 
(Lucius  Verus),  but  of  such  a  conquest  I  find  no  record,  not  even 
in  the  titles,  Armeniacus,  Parthicus,  and  Medicus,  which  the 
senate  so  lavishly  bestowed  on  him  and  which  he  afterwards 
dropped.  (Life,  Smith's  Hist.)  But  on  the  other  hand,  Trajan 
fEutropius,  viii,  3):— "Arabum  regem  in  fidem  accepit,"  and 
•'  Arabian!  postea  in  provincise  formam  redegit."  Bat  to  this 
conquest  (a.d.  116),  could  Bardesanes,  even  a.d.  167,  allude  as  "  of 
yesterday?"  I  think  not.  Severus,  however,  a.d.  196,  again 
conquered  and  reduced  Arabia  to  a  province  (Eutropius,  iii,  18). 
**  Arabos  simul  adortus  est,  in  ditionem  redegit  provincise  modo." 
Aurelius  Victor,  xx,  14,  15,  "  Perearum  regem  Abgarum  subegit, 
Arabas  in  deditionem  accepit."  Severi,  Hist.  Spartianus,  Hist. 
Aug.,  I,  V,  p.  157.  But  if  it  is  of  this  conquest  Bardesanes  speaks, 
then  his  book  can  scarcely  have  been  written  till  after  the  death 
of  Severus  (a.d.  211),  or  in  the  reign  of  Caracalla  (a.d.  211,  217). 
But  as  any  such  date  is  wide  of  the  several  dates  ascribed  to  this 
work  by  the  early  Fathers,  and  as  these  dates  are  themselves  wide 
of  one  another  and  very  indefinite,  we  will  examine  how  far  such  a 
date  is  consistent  with  the  circumstances.  The  Edessene  Chro- 
nicle gives  the  date  of  his  birth  so  precisely,  that  I  should  be 
loath  except  on  evidence  to  reject  it,  a.d.  154.  His  book  as  we 
have  seen  indicates  that  it  was  written  at  least  in  mid-age,  perhaps 
in  old  age;  if  written  a.d.  214,  it  would  have  been  written  eighteen 
years  after  the  conquest  of  Arabia  by  Severus — neither  too  late 
nor  too  early  for  the  "  but  as  yesterday,"  and  when  he  was  sixty 
years  of  age — when  he  might  well  quote  other  works  of  his  own, 
and  be  addressed  as  lord  or  father.*    But  tradition  spoke  of  this 


*  The  several  dates  in  the  above  notes  are  at  variance  with 
those  generally  received.    When  I  suggested  them  to  the  late 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAK  155 

other  known  material;  but  that,  though  not  wood,  it 
was  likest  a  very  hard  and  sound  wood.  And  they 
told  how  a  certain  king  of  theirs  had  on  a  time  tried  to 
pluck  one  of  the  hairs  off  from  about  its  neck,  and  how 
he  was  so  struck  down  with  terror,  that  he  hardly  reco- 
vered his  senses  and  then  only  after  long  intercession  of 
the  Brahmans.     They  said  that  on  its  head  was  the 

work  as  having  been  presented  to  Antoninus,  and  hence  the  em- 
broglio  of  dates.  *"  Now  Bardesanes,  a  Syrian  and  of  the  Abgari, 
could  not  but  know  and  be  known  to  the  Emesene  Elagabahis ;  and 
it  is  neither,  improbable  that  on  Elagabalus's  nomination  to  the 
Empire  he  should  present  him,  evidently  of  a  religious  turn  of 
mind,  with  a  work  already  of  repute  and  which  was  Christian 
rather  because  it  was  catholic,  than  because  it  contained  any 
special  Christian  doctrine ;  nor  that  when  he  so  presented  it,  he 
should  address  the  Emperor  as  Antoninus— a  name  he  much 
affected  and  by  which  he  was  in  Syria  generally  known.  But  if 
the  Christians  carefully  chronicled  the  interview  of  Origen  and 
Mammcea,  is  it  not  probable  that  they  would  likewise  bruit  abroad 
the  honour  conferred  on  this  work  of  Bardesanes,  and  associated 
too  with  the  name  of  Antoninus  ?  But  the  name  of  Antoninus  as 
applied  to  Elagabalus,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  ever  obtained 
in  either  Greece  or  Eome — see,  however,  Capitolini  Macrini,  vii. 
Hist.  Aug.  Script. — and  in  Epiphanius'  time  was  probably  only 
given  to  Pius  and  Marcus ;  what  more  natural  then  than  that  the 
Fathers,  when  they  heard  of  this  presentation  copy,  should  refer  it 
to  one  or  other  of  these  great  Emperors — more  especially  as  the 
work  was  not  heretical,  and  must  therefore  be  a  work  of  Barde- 
sanes' younger  days  ?  though  so  far  as  that  goes,  it  might  just  as 
well  have  been  written  by  a  Jew  as  a  Christian. 


Mr.  Cureton,  he  summarily  rejected  them.  Merx  and  Hilgenfeld, 
in  their  Monographs  on  Bardesanes,  have,  however,  approved  of 
and  adopted  them.  Hilgenfeld  entirely,  v.  Bardesanes  d.  letzte 
Gnostiker,  pp.  12  and  28.  Merx,  with  some  hesitation,  Bardesanes 
V.  Edessen  p.  20,  comp.  p.  130.  Let  me  add  that  both  are  of 
opinion  that  the  work  cannot  be  by  Bardesanes. 


158  IXDIAX  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

image  of  a  god  seated  as  on  a  throne,  and  that  in  the 
great  heats  it  would  run  down  with  such  a  sweat,  as 
would  unless  stopped  by  the  fanning  of  the  Brahmans 
wet  the  earth  around.  Well,  further  on  beyond  the 
statue,  it  was  according  to  the  Indians  very  dark,  and 
those  who  wished  to  go  so  far  took  with  them  lighted 
torches,  and  went  on  till  they  came  to  a  sort  of  door, 
whence  a  stream  of  water  welling  out  fell  into  or  formed 
a  lake  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  cave.  Through 
this  door  those  who  wish  to  prove  themselves  are 
obliged  to  pass.  For  the  pure-minded  it  opens  itself 
out  very  wide  so  that  they  enter  easily  enough,  and 
within  they  find  a  fountain  of  the  brightest  and  sweetest 
water,^  the  source  of  the  stream  I  spoke  of.  The 
wicked  however  struggle  long  and  vainly  to  get  in,  for 
the  entrance  closes  in  upon  them ;  at  length  they  are 
forced  to  confess  their  sins,  and  to  ask  the  others  to 
intercede  for  them,  and  they  are  made  to  fast  a  long 
time. 

Sandanes  further  told,  that  on  a  certain  day  the 
Brahmans  flock  to  this  place ;  that  some  spend  their 
lives  there,  but  that  others  come  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  when  fruit  is  plenty,  both  to  see  the  statue  and 
to  meet  their  friends,  and  to  prove  their  lives  by  means 
of  the  door.  They  at  the  same  time  examine  and 
discuss  the  sculptures  on  the  statue ;  for  it  is  not  easy 
to  understand  them  all,  both  because  of  their  number, 
and  because  no  one  country  contains  all  plants  and 

^  4»a(Tt  Se  €^aip€Tov  avrois  eivai  (xiav  ■mjyrjv  tt\v  ttjs  aA7j0eta5  iroKv 
TravTuu  apicrrrju  kui  deioraTTjv,  ^s  ovderrore  rovs  yevcrafj.evovs  efJLirnrXaaQai, 
Dio  Chryso.,  II,  72. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAK  157 

animals.     This  then  is  what  the  Indians  relate  con- 
cerning the  ordeal  by  water. 

This  Lake  of  Probation  Lassen  connects  with  the 
ordeal  by  water ;  one  of  the  ordeals^^  which  on  a  defi- 
ciency or  absence  of  testimony  is  allowed  and  even 
prescribed   by  the  Hindu  law  (Menu,  viii,  190;   and 
Colebrooke,  Hindu  Law,  I,  503-5).     Of  the  manner  in 
which  these  ordeals  are  performed,  Warren  Hastings  has 
given  an  interesting  account  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
Asiatic  Researches.     In  that  by  water,  which  except  in 
that  it  is  by  water  and  conducted  by  a  Brahman,  re- 
sembles in  nothing  Bardesanes'  Lake  of  Probation — the 
accused  is  made,  to  stand  in  water  either  flowing  or 
stagnant  up  to  his  navel,  and  then  holding  the  foot  of  a 
Brahman  to  dive  and  remain  under  as  long  as  a  man 
can  walk  fifty  paces  very  gently,  or  till  two  men  have 
fetched  back  two  arrows  which  have  been  previously 
shot  from  a  bow.     If,  before  the  man  has  walked  thus 
far  or  the  two  men  have  brought  back  the  arrows,  the 
accused  rise  above  the  water,  he  is  condemned ;  if  not, 
acquitted. 

In  the  cave  of  the  second  lake,  Weber''^  finds  the  first 
Greek  notice  of  a  Hindu  temple,  and  Lassen^^  sees  one 

^  In  the  Eadja-tarangini,  the  widow  of  a  Brahman  applies  tjo 
the  king  to  punish  the  murderer  of  her  husband,  and  names  a 
Brahman  whom  she  suspects,  but  refuses  the  ordeal  by  water. 
"  O  radja,  cet  homme  est  connu  pour  ^tre  verse  dans  le  fameux  art 
de  Teau,  il  pent  sans  crainte  arreter  le  jeu  divin." — iv,  94,  p.  121, 
II,  V.  Eventually  they  try  the  ordeal  by  flour  of  rice,  and  the 
Brahman  is  convicted.  "  Le  roi  lui  infligea  toute  punition  sauf  la 
punition  de  la  mort." — 105. 

70  Indische  Skizzen,  p.  86,  note. 

71  Indische  Alterthumskunder,  III,  351. 


158  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

of  tlie  cave  temples  so  frequent  on  the  western  coast  of 
the  Indian  peninsula.  The  statue  he  identifies  with  that 
of  Siva  as  Ardhanari,  or  half-man  half- woman,  and  of 
Siva  also  recognised  as  the  Supreme  God.  The  image 
on  the  head  is  that  of  the  Ganges,  the  angels  are 
Devas,  and  the  characters  on  his  arms  are  typical  of 
him  as  the  Creator.'^^  The  door  and  the  great  sweat  he 
explains  as  pious  frauds,  and  the  sacrilegious  king  as  a 
legend  invented  and  promulgated  by  priests  to  secure 
the  treasures  which  they  habitually  deposited  within 
their  statues.  On  "Weber's  conjecture  I  would  observe, 
that  the  cave  is  a  natural  cave  and  seemingly  in  its 
natural  state,  without  pillars  or  carvings  in  relief;  but 
nevertheless  a  cave  which  the  patient  fervour  of  a  re- 
ligious idea  may  hereafter  develope  into  a  cave  temple. 
Lassen's  conjectures  have  an  air  of  probability  about 
them ;  but  still  it  seems  to  me  that  the  lake  and  the 
cave  are  each  in  its  kind  unique ;  that  with  regard  to 
the  first,  we  have  no  indication  whatever  of  its  locality ; 
and,  with  regard  to  the  second,  the  very  indefinite  one, 


'2  A  statue  of  Siva  and  Parvati  united,  or  as  Ardhanari,  is  in 
tlie  Elephanta  cave. — Moor's  Pantheon,  p.  98.  And  in  plates  7  and 
24  of  the  same  work  are  representations  of  Ardhanari,  two  seated 
and  one  standing.  On  each  side  of  the  united  deities  are  the  bull 
and  tiger,  the  Nandis  of  Siva  and  Parvati  respectively,  but  in  pi. 
7  interchanged.     In  all  the  figures 

"  From  the  moon-silvered  locks  famed  Ganga  springs  ;'* 
but  in  pi.  7  the  goddess  is  seen  personally  with  the  serpent's  head 
over  her;  all  bear  the  soli-lunar  emblem  on  the  forehead,  the 
drum  and  trident  or  sword  in  the  hands,  and  the  collar  of  flowers 
or  skulls  about  the  neck ;  but  on  none  are  to  be  found  the  sym- 
bolical characters  which  adorned  the  statue  of  Sandanes. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  159 

that  it  is  in  a  very  high  mountain^^  somewhere  near 
the  centre  of  the  earth ;  not  therefore  in  the  country 
of  Sandanes  or  Sadanes,  if  he  came  from  Ardjake  or 
the  Malabar  coast  as  Lassen  supposes.  I  cannot  but 
think  that  our  ambassadors  spoke  of  this  lake  and 
mountain  not  from  knowledge  but  from  hearsay,  and 
that  they  repeated  stories  current  in  their  country, 
which  they  conscientiously  believed  perhaps,  but  for 
which  there  was  about  the  same  foundation  as  for  that 
Fontaine  de  Jouvence  so  famous  in  old  romance. 

But  as  between  India  and  the  Eoman  empire  there 
never  existed  any  interchange  of  thought  or  any 
common  sympathies,  the  allusions  to  India  in  Eoman 
literature  are  at  the  most  but  indications  of  that  curi- 
osity which  is  excited  by  commercial  intercourse.  But 
that  intercourse  was  in  the  hands  of  the  merchants  of 
Alexandria  and  Palmyra.  These  cities,  situated,  one  on 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  other  in  the  midst 
of  a  desert  far  inland  and  halfway  between  Mesopotamia 
and  Syria,  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  had  any  direct 
communication  with  India.  They  could  not  be  reached 
but  by  a  long  portage  and  river  navigation :  and  yet  the 
facilities  which  the  one  as  the  great  seaport  of  the 

78  Perhaps  in  the  north  of  India,  towards  Mount  Meru,  where 
also  is  that  cave  of  Pluto,  irapa  rois  Apiavois  tois  IvdiKois,  described 
by  ^lian,  xvi,  16,  with  its  mystic  recesses,  its  secret  paths  stretch- 
ing deep  underground  and  leading  no  one  knows  whither,  but 
down  which,  when  the  people  drive  them,  all  sorts  of  animals  wil- 
lingly hurry  never  to  return ;  though  who  will  may  hear  the  bleat- 
ing of  sheep,  the  lowing  of  oxen,  and  the  neighing  of  horses, 
coming  up  from  the  depths  of  the  earth. 


160  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

Koman  empire  afforded  to  the  transit  of  western  mer- 
chandise, and  the  advantages  which  the  other  derived 
from  its  proximity  to  India  and  the  comparatively 
small  cost  at  which  it  obtained  and  delivered  the  pro- 
ducts of  India,  gave  them  the  monopoly  of  Eoman  trade 
with  the  East.  The  Alexandrian  route  Pliny'^^  has 
traced  out.  At  Juliopolis,  the  river  port  and  a  suburb 
of  Alexandria,  our  merchants  embarked  with  their 
goods,  and  favoured  by  the  prevailing  north  wind  sailed 
up  the  Canoptic  branch  of  the  Nile,  and  in  twelve  days 
reached  Coptos,  distant  three  hundred  and  three  miles, 
a  city  of  a  mixed  population,  Egyptian  and  Arabian,^^ 
and  communicating  with  the  Nile  by  a  canal.  Here 
they  left  their  boats,  and  with  their  merchandize 
on  camel-back  pushed  across  plains  and  over  mountains 
to  Berenice,  another  twelve  days'  journey,  travelling 
mostly  by  night  because  of  the  heat,  and  regulating 
their  halts  by  the  wells  on  the  road.  At  Berenice,  a 
seaport  on  the  southern  frontier  of  Egypt,  they  met  the 
fleet  intended  for  India.  The  ships  of  which  it  was 
composed  were  large,  well-found  and  manned,  and 
carried  besides  a  body  of  armed  men  as  a  safeguard 
against  the  pirates  who  infested  the  Indian  seas.^^ 
Erom  Berenice,  about  midsummer  time  or  in  the  begin- 

74  Hist.  Nat.,  vi,  26. 

"^^    Kot  7]  €IS  KOTTTOU    dlOOpCC^,  TTOKlV    K01V7IV    AiyVITTKiOV    TS    KUl    ApaficCV. 

Strabo,  xviii,  I,  44. 

76  "  Sagittariorum  coliortibTis  impositis  :  etenim  piratse  maxinje 
infestant." — Pliny,  ib.  irAet  8e  cis  ifiiropia  ravra  fx^yaha  irKoia,  Peri- 
plus,  §  56 ;  and  see  also  the  description  of  an  Egyptian  ship  in  the 
Indian  trade,  from  Philostratus'  Life  of  ApoUonius,  suj^ra,  pp.  49, 
50,  and  note  9,  p.  50. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  161 

ning  of  the  dog-days,  they  set  sail,  and  in  thirty  days 
made  Ocelis,  or  Cane,  the  one  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb,  the  other  on  the 
western  coast  of  Arabia  in  the  frankincense  country, 
and  thence  or  from  Syagrus  to  the  north  of  Cane  they 
struck  out  through  the  open  sea  for  Muziris,  in  Pliny's 
time  the  haunt  of  pirates,  or  for  Necanidon  (Nelcyndon) 
or  Barake,  a  forty  days'  sail.  At  Barake  they  took  in 
pepper,  which  was  brought  there  in  native  boats  from 
Cottonara.  In  the  month  of  December  or  in  the  begin- 
ning of  January  they  returned  taking  advantage  of  the 
south-east  monsoon,  and  when  they  entered  the  Red 
Sea  of  the  westerly  wind.  So  far  Pliny.  But  when  he 
wrote  the  trade  with  India  was  in  its  infancy;  as  it 
developed  itself,  in  the  marts  which  Alexandrian  ships 
most  frequented  Greek  factories^^  were  probably  esta- 
blished to  which  the  merchants  consigned  their  goods, 
and  which  managed  all  their  business  with  the  authorities 
and  the  people.  In  this  way  we  may  account  for  the 
Greek  names  of  towns  on  the  Indian  seaboard,  and  for 

77  I  have  no  direct  authority  for  this ;  but  besides  such  names 
on  the  Indian  coast  as  Byzantium,  found  also  in  the  Periplus,  etc., 
Ptolemy,  speaking  of  the  situation  of  some  Indian  town,  states 
that  he  has  it  from  those  who  had  resided  in  the  country  some 
time,  rrapa  roou  ttrrevdev  eKTirXeuaavrwv  Kai  xoovov  yrheiaTov  unKQavTUv 
Touj  TOTTous  Kai  irapa  tcdv  fKeiOev  acpiKO/xevoou  irpos  ^juas. —  Proleg.  I,  xvii. 
And  though  much  later  in  time,  Procopius  says  of  Abraham,  whom 
the  Homerites  elected  their  king,  that  he  was  the  slave  of  a 
Roman,  and  lived  at  Adule  as  (a  ship  agent  or  broker).  'O  Se 
KfipafjLOS  ovros  XP^(f'^^°-vos  "nv,  ^ovXos  5e  Poj^atou  av^pos,  ev  iro\fi...ASov- 
XiSi  fTTt  tt;  Kara  OaKaaaav  tpyaaitf  Siarptfirjv  ex®"''"''*' — ^®  Bello  Per- 
sico,  I,  20. 

M 


162  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

that  temple  of  Augustus  near  Muziris — if  it  ever  ex- 
isted— which  appears  in  the  Peutingerian  tables. 

Of  the  course  of  trade  to  and  through  Palmyra  we 
know  little.     Palmyra  we  have  every  reason  to  believe 
had  no  ships  of  its  own.     Arab  and  perhaps  native 
vessels  brought  the  produce  of  India  up  the  Persian 
Gulf  to  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates ;  and,  if  they  did 
not  themselves  ascend  the  river,  at  Teredon  they  dis- 
charged their  cargoes'^^  intended  for  Vologesia,  which 
was  reached  either  by  land  on  camels  or  in  vessels  of 
lighter  draught  by  the  river;  but  in  w^hat  time — the 
distance  was  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles — I  am 
unable  to  ascertain.    At  Vologesia  however,  a  two  days' 
journey  from  their  city,  the  merchants  of  Palmyra  took 
tip  the  trade.     In  its  market  or  fair,  held  always  at 
some  little  distance  from  the  town  itself,  they  met  the 
Arab  or  Indian  traders,  and  exchanged  with  them  by 
sale  and  purchase  the  manufactures  of  the  West  for  the 
goods  and  produce  of  India.     By  this  trafl&c  Palmyra 
silently  but  so  rapidly  grew  in  wealth  and  power,  that 
its  prince  and  king,  Odenatus,  with  his  own  forces  and 
by  his  energy  and  generalship  saved  the  Roman  empire, 


78  Vide  Strabo,  xv.  III,  5,  and  Pliny,  vi,  22.  Very  possibly  the^ 
Bailed  up  to  Vologesia  itself,  for  a  passage  in  the  Meadows  of 
Gold  of  Masoudi,  to  which  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  called  my  atten- 
tion, speaks  of  ships  from  India  and  China  as  in  the  fifth  century 
of  our  era  lying  at  Hira,  a  little  to  the  south-west  of  Babylon, 
247,  Sprenger's  tr.,  and  Eeinaud's  Observations,  pp.  xxxv-vi,  with 
note  I,  Eelations  Arabes.  With  Apologus  probably,  and  with 
Omana  certainly,  the  Hindus  in  the  time  of  the  Periplus  carried 
on  a  trade  in  native  boats  from  Barygaza. — Periplus  Anonym., 
§36. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN,  163 

and  for  his  services  to  the  Eoman  state  was  raised  by 
Gallienus,  A.D.  266,  to  the  title  of  Augustus J^  At  his 
death  its  queen,  his  widow  Zenobia,  ventured  to  throw 
off  her  allegiance  to  Eome.  For  a  moment  she  held  the 
sovereignty  of  the  East,^^  but  was  at  length  defeated 
and  taken  prisoner  by  Aurelian,  who  at  the  same  time 
pillaged  and  destroyed  Palmyra,^^  A.D.  275,  and  thus  put 
an  end  to  the  Eoman  trade  with  India  through  the 
Persian  Gulf. 

The  Alexandrian  trade  with  India,  unlike  the  Pal- 
myrene,  was  not  broken  up  by  any  one  great  catastrophe. 
It  remained  some  time  stationary ;  but  from  the  reign 
of  Caracalla  it  rapidly  declined,  and  when  Palmyra  was 
destroyed  it  was  in  so  languishing  a  state,  that  in  so 
far  at  least  as  it  was  a  trade  directed  and  controlled  by 
Alexandrian  merchants  it  may  almost  be  said  to  have 
died  out.  Among  the  circumstances  which  affected  its 
prosperity,  we  may  reckon : — 

I.  The  privileges  accorded  to  Palmyra  by  the  Emperor 
Hadrian.  The  comparatively  short  sea  passage  of  the 
Palmyrene  route,  and  the  very  situation  of  Palmyra, 
must  have  soon  drawn  to  its  markets  not  only  such 
commodities  as  were  intended  to  supply  the  wants  of 
the  neighbouring  districts,  but  such  also  as  before  they 
were  fitted  for  consumption  required  the  manufacturing 
aid  of  the  great  cities  of  Phoenicia,  as  e.g.  silk,  of  which 
the  Indian  mart  was  Nelcyndon,  and  which,  if  brought 

79  Vide  PoUio,  Hist.  Gallieni.    Hist.  Aug.  Script.,  x,  xii,  pp. 
90,  92. 

80  Vide  Zosimus,  Lib.  I,  440. 

8^  Vide  M.  Aurelianus  Vopisci,  xxxi.    Hist.  Aug.  Script.,  II,  176. 


164  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

over  in  its  raw  state  or  in  the  thread/^  was  taken  to 
Berytus  or  Tyre^^  to  be  made  up  into  stuffs ;  or  if  in 
stuffs,  to  Tyre  or  Sidon  to  be  dyed.^*  The  Palmyrene 
route  then  once  opened  must  have  affected  the  Alex- 
andrian trade  with  India,  and  must  so  far  have  counter- 
acted the  stimulus  given  to  it,  first  by  Eoman  protection, 
and  afterwards  by  the  discovery  of  the  monsoons,  as  to 
have  stayed  its  further  development.  But  there  was 
ample  room  for  both,  and  to  spare.  The  Alexandrian 
people  however,  filled  with  the  jealousy  and  hate  usually 

82  If  it  was  brought  in  stuffs  was  it  re-made  ?  Pliny,  Philemon 
Holland's  tr.  "The  Seres  kemb  from  the  leaves  of  their  trees 
the  hoary  down — '  Velleraque,  ut  foliis  depectunt  tenuia  Seres,' 
Georgics  II,  121 — and  when  it  is  steeped  in  water,  they  card  and 
spin  it,  yea,  and  after  their  manner  make  thereof  a  web ;  where- 
upon the  dames  herewith  us  have  a  double  labour  both  of  undoing 
and  also  of  reweaving  again  this  kind  of  yarn.  See  what  ado 
there  is  about  it !  What  labour  and  toil  it  costeth,  and  how  far 
fet  it  is,  and  all  that  our  ladies  and  wives  when  they  go  abroad 
in  the  street  may  cast  a  lustre  from  them  and  shine  again,  in 
their  silks  and  velvets." — I,  p.  124.  From  this  mention  of  silk 
and  the  Seres  we  cannot  conclude  any  knowledge  of  the  coun- 
try, for  in  an  account  of  London  written  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II, 
twelfth  century,  we  are  told  of  the  merchandize  found  there,  "the 
Seres  send  purple  garments." — Antiquarian  Repository,  246,  I. 

^^  'Ifiaria  ra  ck  fiera^r]s  ev  Br}^>vTa>  fiiv  Kai  Tvpcp  -noK^ai.  rais  evi 
^oiviKTjs  epya^eaOai  e/c  TraAatou  cioodei.  ol  re  tovtwv  €/j.Tropoi  re  Kai  cirtdr]- 
fitovpyoi  Kai  TexftTot  ivravOa  ro  avcKadfP  (pKOvu,  evOevSe  re  fs  "yqv  airaaav 
<pspea6ai  to  e.u'ToAijjua  tovto  ^we^aivev. — Procopius,  Hist.  Arcana,  c. 
25,  p.  140,  and  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xiv,  9,  7. 

^  "  Quid  lineas  ^gypto  petitas  loquar  ?  Quid  Tyro  et  Sidone 
tenuitate  perlucidas  micantes  purpura,  plumandi  difficultate  per- 
nobiles  ?" — Vopiscus,  Carinus,  xx.  Hist.  Aug.  Scrip.  That  the 
stuffs  from  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  of  silk,  I  gather  from  the  "  difiicul- 
tate  plumandi." — X'^'^^^  ^'^  ixera^Tjs  cyHaWcoTnauaa-i  XP^f^ois  Travraxodev 
wpaivofxivos,  a  5e  vevofxr\Kaai  TrXovn/xia  KaAeiv. — Procopius  de  ^dificiis, 
III,  1,  p.  247,  and  Ammianus  MareelL,  xiv,  9,  7. 


.    CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  165 

induced  by  commercial  antagonism,  assailed  with  taunts 
and  sneers  and  ribald  jests  those  emperors  wlio  specially 
favoured  the  rival  city — Hadrian,^^  who  gave  it  its 
privileges,  and  Caracalla  and  his  mother  who  were  almost 
native  there.  Hadrian  heard  and  despised  their  abuse ; 
Caracalla^^  treacherously  and  savagely  avenged  it ;  and 
his  massacre  of  the  people  and  plunder  of  the  foreign 
merchants  was  a  blow  from  which  Alexandria  did  not 
easily  recover. 

II.  The  disturbed  state  of  the  Eoman  Empire  from 
the  death  of  Alexander  Severus,  a.d.  235,  to  that  of 
Aurelian,  a.d.  275.  During  this  dreary  period  of  Eoman 
story,  Palmyra,  almost  independent,  on  a  distant  fron- 
tier, and  not  subjected  to  the  influences  of  a  turbulent 
garrison  and  an  ambitious  general,  went  on  to  the  very 
hour  of  its  fall  uninterrupted  in  its  career  of  prosperity. 
Under  its  able  chief,  from  a  rich  but  merely  commercial 
city,  it  became  a  powerful  state.  Alexandria,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  the  very  centre  of  civil  discord,  was 
driven  on  by  its  excitable  people  to  take  a  prominent 
part  in  every,  civil  war.^^  It  itself  set  up  or  readily 
acknowledged  as   emperor  more  than  one  unsuccess- 

85  Vide  note  6,  p.  127,  supra,  from  the  Hist.  Aug-.  Scrip. 

®s  Besides  Lis  massacre  of  the  citizens,  he  cotnpelled  all  strangers 
to  leave  the  city,  except  merchants,  and  to  tKeivuu  vavTa  dirjpnarrdri. 
Dio.  Cass.,  c.  22,  77  L.  He  also  took  away  the  Jus  Bulentarium 
conceded  to  them  by  Severus. — Id.,  c.  17,  51  L. 

^~  "  Sed  Alexandria... internis  seditionibus  diu  aspere  fatigata, 
ad  uUimum  multis  post  aunis  Aureliano  imperium  agente,  civili- 
bus  jurgiis  ad  certamina  interneciva  prolapsis,  diratisque  moenibus, 
amisit  regionis  maximam  partem,  quae  Bruchion  appellabatui*, 
diuturnum  proBstantium  hominum  domicilium.^' — Amm.  Mar.,  xxii, 
16,  §  15. 


166  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

ful  competitors^  for  the  imperial  purple.  Ever  on  the 
losing  side,  it  necessarily  suffered  much,  and  was  indeed 
once  taken  and  held  by  the  forces  of  Zenobia,  and  twice 
besieged  and  sacked  and  its  principal  and  noblest  quar- 
ter destroyed  by  Eoman  armies.^^  Under  such  circum- 
stances trade  was  neglected,  and  that  with  India  as 
carried  on  from  a  distant  port  so  fell  away,  that  it  no 
longer  found  employment  for  large  fleets  of  large  ships, but 
was  in  the  hands  of  a  few  rich  merchants,  as  Firmus,^^ 
who  probably  derived  from  it  more  honour  than  profit. 

III.  The  weakness  of  the  Eoman  Empire.  It  was  no 
longer  able  to  repel  the  incursions  of  the  barbarians, 
who  everywhere  pressed  upon  its  ill-guarded  frontiers. 
And  the  Blemmyes,  a  fierce  people  whose  heads  once 

^  As  ^milianus,  xxi,  Tr.  Tyranni  Treb.  PoUio.  Saturninus 
and  Firmus,  vid.  Flav.  Vopis.,  Hist.  Aug.  Scrip.,  pp.  123,  228,  etc., 
pp.  ii,  V. 

^^  Eusebius  (Hist.  Eccl.,  vii)  tells  of  the  misery  and  confusion 
in  Alexandria,  a.d.  261,  the  consequence  of  sedition  and  civil  war ; 
ih.,  22,  of  the  plague  which  afflicted  it ;  and  ih.,  32,  of  its  siege 
and  capture,  and  the  destruction  of  Bruchium.  In  the  Chron. 
Canon.,  under  Claudius,  a.d.  273,  "  Alexandrise  suburbium  post 
diutinam  obsidionem  summo  excidio  deletum  est." — p.  392,  ed. 
Maius  et  Zohrab. 

^  Vopiscus  dwells  on  the  wealth  of  Firmus:  ''  De  hujus  divitiis 
multa  dicuntur,  nam  et  vitreis  quadraturis,  bitumine  aliisque 
medicamentis  insertis,  domum  indurisse  perhibetur;  et  tantum 
habuisse  de  chartis,  ut  publice  ssepe  diceret,  exercitum  se  alere 
posse  papyro  et  glutino.  Idem  et  cum  Biemyis  societatem  maxi- 
mam  tenuit  et  cum  Saracenis ;"  and  then  adds,  "  naves  quoque  ad 
Indos  negotiator ias  scepe  misit :  ipse  quoque  dicitur  habuisse  duos 
dentes  elephant!  pedum  denum." — ib.,  230,  p.  II.  Vopiscus  de- 
scribes the  wealth  of  Firmus  in  so  far  as  it  was  extraordinary, 
rare,  and  with  this  classes  his  ships  to  India.  After  him  I  cannot 
anywhere  find  that  ships  went  from  Alexandria  to  India. 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  167 

did  grow  beneath  tlieir  shoulders,^^  so  infested  the 
neighbourhood  of  Berenice,  that  Firmus — one  of  the  last 
of  the  Alexandrian  merchants  who  sent  ships  to  India — 
no  doubt  from  motives  of  interest  sedulously  culti- 
vated their  friendship.  They  seem  to  have  occupied 
Coptos  and  Ptolemais,  for  Probus^^  (a.d.  279)  is  said  to 
have  recovered  these  towns  from  them.  But  with  Cop- 
tos— the  town  where  portage  on  the  route  to  India 
either  began  or  ended — in  the  hands  of  a  savage  race, 
Alexandrian  trade  with  India  if  not  diverted  into  some 
other  channel  was  impossible  ;  and  that  for  the  present 
it  came  'to  a  stand  the  wretched  state  of  Alexandria  and 
Rome  leads  us  to  believe;  but  that  in  time  Indian 
trade  again  flowed  into  Alexandria,  though  under  other 
conditions  and  by  other  means  than  of  old,  I  shall  en- 
deavour to  show  in  another  paper. 

91  "Blemrayis  capita  absunt  vultus  in  peetore  est." — Pomp. 
Mela.,  I,  viii,  60.  But  Eome  was  able  to  form  a  more  correct 
opinion  of  them  after  the  triumph  of  Aurelian  in  which  they 
figured:  "praetor  captivos  gentium  barbarum,  Blemyes...Indi, 
Bactriani,  Saraceni,  Persae."— Vopiscus,  ih.,  178,  II.  The  Indi 
and  Bactriani  must  have  been  captives  from  Palmyra. 

92  Vopiscus,  Probus  xvii,  ib.,  221,  II. 


ON   THE 

INDIAN  EMBASSIES  TO   EOME. 
Part  II. 


ON 

THE  IISTDIAN   EMBASSIES   TO   EOME, 

FROM  THE   KEIGN   OF  CLAUDIUS   TO   THE   DEATH 
OF  JUSTINIAN. 


PART  II. 


After  the  fall  of  Palmyra  and  the  many  disasters 
which  about  this  time  overwhelmed  Alexandria,  the  far 
east  ceased  to  occupy  the  Eoman  mind  or  much  place  in 
Eoman  literature.  India  and  the  name  of  Buddha  are 
however  to  be  met  with  in  Christian  controversial  writ- 
ings of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  directed  against  the 
Mauichaean  heresy.  They  occur,  in  Archelaus'  account 
of  his  disputation  with  the  heresiarch  Manes  held  at 
Charra  in  Mesopotamia^  (a.d.  275-9),  in  the  Catecheses 
of  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  (a.d.  361),  and  in  the  heresies  of 
Epiphanius  (a.d.  375),  which  aU  trace  back  the  Mani- 
chsean  doctrine  to  one  Scythianus  and  his  disciple  Tere- 

1  Vide  Archelai  et  Manetis  Disputatio :  ed.  Zacagnii,  p.  1,  pp. 
93-4.  This  work  written  originally  in  Syriac  I  refer  to,  because  it 
is  Cyril's  and  Epiphanius's  authority  for  their  notices  of  Scythianus. 
Cyril  says  this  heresy  sprang  up  in  the  reign  of  Probus  (a.d.  276- 
82),  Catechesis,  vi,  20.  Cedrenus,  a  mere  copyist  and  a  bungling 
copyist,  makes  Manes  a  Brahman  and  identical  with  Scythianus, 
&  Kai  ^Kvdtafos  ^tyonevos  $pa)(fxavrjs  r)v  ro  ytvos,  but  he  gives  him 
Boi/8as,  formerly  Terebinthus,  for  a  teacher,  to  whom  he  ascribes 
the  four  Manichsean  books.    Hist.  p.  455,  I,  Bonn  ed. 


172  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

bintlius,  wliom  they  connect  with  India  in  this  wise. 
Scythianus,  of  Scythian  descent,  but  by  birth  a  Saracen 
of  tlie  Saracens  of  Palestine  and  thus  familiar  with  the 
Greek  language  and  literature,^  was  a  merchant  engaged 
in  the  India  trade.  In  the  course  of  his  business  he  had 
several  times  visited  India,  and  while  there,  being  a 
man  of  an  inquiring  mind  and  great  natural  parts,^  had 
made  himself  acquainted  with  the  Indian  philosophy.* 
In  his  maturer  years,  having  amassed  great  wealth,  he 
returned  homeward,  and  at  Hypsele^  in  the  Thebais,  fell 
in  with  an  Egyptian  slave  girl,^whom  he  bought  and  mar- 
ried, and  who  persuaded  him  to  settle  in  Alexandria.^ 
Here  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  and  mastered 
the  Egyptian  learning,^  and  here  formed  those  peculiar 

2  ^Kv9iavov...aTro  rr)s  Sapa/fTjfT;?  bofioiixivov  Kara  5e  to  repfxara  tt^v 
HaKaiffTtjvrjs,  tout'  ((tti  ev  rr)  ApaBia,  avaTpa<l>€UTO$'  ovto^  6  2,KvOiavos  fV 
TOis  ifpoiiprifJiivois  701T015  TTttiSeuOets  ttji/  'EWrji'cov  'yXoiaaav  nat  TTjf  ruv 
ypafifxaTcop  avrwu  traihuav.  Epiphan.  Ad.  Hseres,  L.  II,  Tom.  II, 
H£B.,  m,  §  i,  p.  618,  I.  V. 

3  "  Valde  dives  ingenio  et  opibus  sicut  hi  qui  sciebant  eum  per 
traditionem  nobis  quoque  testificati  sunt."    Archelaus,  ih. 

4  Epiphanius,  wbo  writes  with  theological  bitterness  throughout, 
alone  alludes  to  his  Indian  acquirements,  but  makes  him  little 
better  than  an  Indian  juggler :  Kai  yao  kui  yorjs  t^v  otto  ttjs  rmv  Iv^wv 
Kai  AiyuTTTUv  Kai  fQvofivQov  auiptas,  ih.,  §  3. 

^  irhovTcp  iroWcp  eirapdeis  Kai  KTrjuairip  T^hucrixaroDU  Kai  tois  aWois  rois 
arro  ttis  IvSias,  Kai  eKdcov  irepi  Trjv  0/j)8at5a  ets  "Viprj^V^-      Epipb.,  ib.,  §  2. 

6  According  to  Ai*chelaus  "  quandam  captivam  accepit  uxorem, 
de  Thebaide,"  u.s.  According  to  Epiphanius,  he  took  her  from  a 
common  brothel :  aviAo/ieuos  tout'  ano  rov  areyuvs  {farrjKf  yap  t)  Toiaurri 
tu  rri  iroKvKoivcp  aire/ivoTijTt )  €TeKadea9rj  rep  yvvaip,  ib.,  p.  619. 

'  "  Quse  eum  suasit  habitare  in  iEgypto  magis  quam  in  desertis," 
ib.,  and  Cyril,  C.  vi,  c.  xxii,  ttj^  A\€^uv5pfiav  oucrjo-av,  he  thus  locates 
him  in  Alexandria.     Ib.,  p.  184,  I.     Eeischl,  ed. 

8  "  In  qua  provincia  cum  .  .  .  habitaret,  Egyptiorum  sapientiam 
didicisset."    Archelaus,  ib. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  173 

opinions  wlncli  with  the  assistance  of  his  one  disciple 
and  slave,  Terebinthus,  he  embodied  in  four  books,^  the 
source  of  all  Manichaean  doctrine.  Here  too  he  heard 
of  the  Jewish  Scriptures  ;  and  wishing  to  converse  with 
the  Jewish  doctors^^  he  set  forth  with  Terebinthus  for 
Jerusalem,  and  in  Jerusalem  met  and  in  a  scornful  and 
self-willed  spirit  disputed  with  the  Presbyters  of  the 
Church,  and  there  after  a  short  time  died.^^  At  his 
death,  Terebinthus  either  inherited  or  seized  upon  his 
books  and  other  wealth,  and  hurrying  to  Babylon  pro- 
claimed himself  learned  in  the  wisdom  of  Egypt.^^     He 

9  Epiphanius,  §  2  ih.,  and  Cyril  assert  tliat  Scythianus  wrote 
these  books;  Arcbelaus  on  the  other  hand,  that  Terebinthus  was 
their  author.  These  books  Mysteriorum,  Capitulorum,  Evangelium, 
(ov  XP^^'''""'"^  pa^fi^  Trepiexofra,  Cyril,  ib.)  et  novissimum  omnium 
Thesaurum  appellavit."     Archelaus,  ih. 

^'^  EireiS/;  Se  cKriKuei  ttcos  ol  npo^rjrat  Kai  6  vo/jios  inpi  ttjs  rov  Koafiov 
cvaraaews,  etc.  Epiphanius,  ib.,  §  3:  "  I'lacuit  Scythiano  discurrere 
in  Judseam,  ut  ibi  congrederetur  cum  omnibus  quicunque  ibi  vide- 
bantur  doctores."  Archelaus,  ib.  Cyril  merely  mentions  that  he 
■went  to  Judsea  and  polluted  the  country  by  his  presence ;  /cot 

XvixfivaaQai  ttji'  x^P°^^i  '^^• 

^^  'O  irpos  Tovs  e/fejo-6  T]p(a$VTepov$  avrifiaWeiv  Tjp^aro.  Epiphanius 
L.  II,  III,  p.  620,  places  all  this  in  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  wept 
TOWS  x^ofoi/s  Twv  AirmoXoop,  quite  impossibly. 

12  Epiphanius  will  have  it  that  he  fell  from  the  house-top  and  so 
died — the  death  also  of  Terebinthus.  Archelaus  merely  says  that 
arrived  in  Judea  he  died ;  and  Cyril,  that  he  died  of  a  disease  sent 
by  the  Lord,  rov  voacf  Bavarwras  b  Kvpios,  ib. 

13  Terebinthus  dicens  omni  se  sapientia  iEgyptiorum  repletum 
et  vocari  non  jam  Terebinthums  ed  alium  Buddam  nomine,  sibique 
hoc  nomen  impositum,  ex  quadam  autem  virgine  natum  se  esse, 
simul  et  ab  Angelo  in  montibus  enutritum." — Archelaus,  p.  97. 
Epiphanius  asserts  that  he  took  the  name  of  Buddha,  ha  /xtj  Kara- 
^wpos  yevTjT at,  ib.  Cyril,  omitting  the  virgin  birth,  that  he  took  it 
because  he  was  known  and  condemned  in  Judea  for  his  doctrine. 


174  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

also  took  the  name  of  Buddha  [BovBBa^,  Buddas),  and 
gave  out  that  he  was  born  of  a  virgin,  and  had  been 
brought  up  on  the  mountains  by  an  angel.^* 

Some  years  after  Epiphanius  (died  a.d.  401),  Hiero- 
nymus  (died  a.d.  420)  incidentally  notices  the  birth  of 
Buddha.  Having  enlarged  on  the  honour  in  which 
virginity  has  ever  been  held,  and  how  to  preserve  it 
some  women  have  died,  or  how  to  avenge  its  enforced 
loss  others  have  killed  either  themselves  or  their 
ravishers,  he  goes  on  to  say,  that  among  the  Gymnoso- 
phists  there  is  a  tradition,  that  Buddha  the  founder  of 
their  philosophy  was  born  from  the  side  of  a  virgin.^^ 

Of  these  writers  Hieronymus  is  the  only  one  who 
directly  refers  to  the  Indian  Buddha,  and  of  ancient 
writers  is  the  first  who  correctly  narrates  the  manner  of 

ih.y  §  23.  But  Petrus  Siculus,  a.d.  790,  and  Photius,  890,  give 
lurther  details :  'O  /xev  ^KvOiauos  fToK/x-qae  narepa  eavrou  oponaaar  6 
8e  BovSSas  vtov  lou  &eou  Kai  IlaTpos,  ck  irapdevov  5e  yeyeuriadai  Kai  €V  tois 
optaiv  auarp6(pea6ai.  'Odev  Kai  ScuSewa  nadrjTai  6  auTi\piaros  tt/s  irAoyrjs 
KTjpvKas  air«TT€iXfv.  '  Reischl,  note  to  Cyril,  ib. 

14  Besides  this  Buddha,  Terebinthus,  there  is  a  second  Buddas, 
Baddas,  or  Addas,  one  of  the  twelve  disciples  of  Manes,  who 
preached  his  doctrine  in  Syria ;  and  a  third  Bud  or  Buddas  Perio- 
dutes,  who  lived  a.d.  570.  "  Christianorura  in  Persidi  finitimisque 
Indiarum  regionibus  curam  gerens.  Sermonem  Indicum  coluisse 
dicitur,  ex  quo  librum  Calilagh  et  Damnagh  ( Kalilah  va  Dimna, 
de  bonis  moribus  et  apta  conditione  animi,  Geldemeister  de  Eebus 
Ind.,p.  104)  Syriace  reddidit." — Asseman.  Bib.  Orientalis,  III,  zl9, 
but  as  the  work  had  been  already  translated  into  Persian  by  order  of 
Choroes  (a.d.  531-579)  "  Syriacam  versionem  proxime  post  Per- 
sicam  fecit  Bud  Periodutes." — Asseman.,  ib.,  p.  222. 

1=  Contra  Jovianum  Epistolas,  Pt.  I,  Tr.  II,  c.  26:  "Apud 
Gymnosophistas  inde  quasi  per  manus  hujus  opinionis  traditur 
auctoritas,  quod  Buddam  principem  dogmatis  eorum  e  latere  suo 
virgo  generavit." 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAIT.  175 

Buddha's  birth  from  the  side  of  his  mother ;  and  yet 
his  notice  of  him  is  by  no  means  so  full  and  satisfactory 
as  that  of  Clemens,  written  some  two  centuries  before. 
YoT  Clemens  described  Buddha  as  a  man  and  moral 
lawgiver,  and  as  a  man  raised  to  deity  by  his  own  su- 
preme majesty  and  the  reverence  of  his  followers,  shortly 
indeed,  but  how  truth  fully  and  characteristically!  when 
compared  with  Hieronymus,  who  knows  him  as  the 
founder  of  the  Gymnosophists,  i.e.,  of  the  Hindu  philo- 
sophy, which  is  as  much  as  if  a  Hindu  should  see  in 
Mahomet  the  author  of  the  western  religions. 

Again,  Hieronymus  gives  Buddha  a  virgin  mother. 
But  a  virgin  mother  is  unknown  to  the  Buddhist  books 
of  India  and  Ceylon,  and  belongs — derived  perhaps 
from  some  Chinese  or  Christian  source — to  the  bastard 
creed  of  the  Buddhists  of  Tartary.^^   Under  any  circum- 

^6  According  to  tlie  Nepaulese  "  Neither  Adi  Buddha  nor  any  of 
the  Pancha  Buddha  Dhyani...were  ever  conceived  in  mortal  womb, 
nor  had  they  father  or  mother,  but  certain  persons  of  mortal 
wiowl(i  have  attained  to  such  excellence... as  to  have  been  gifted 
with  divine  wisdom. ..and  these  were...Sakya  Sinha,"  Hodgson, 
Buddhist  Eel.,  p.  68.  And  the  Thibetan  books  from  the  Sanskrit, 
among  the  qualities  required  of  the  mother  of  Buddha  place  this 
one:  "elle  n'a  pas  encore  enfante,"  to  which  Foucaux  appends 
this  note :  "  Mais  il  n'est  pas  dit  qu'elle  sera  vierge."  Hist,  de 
Bouddha,  tr.  de  Foucaux.  The  Sinhalese :  "  Our  Vanquisher  was 
the  son  of  Suddhadana  and  Maya,"  Mahawanso,  Turner,  p.  9,  Up- 
ham,  p.  25.  Indeed  the  Virgin  mother  seems  strange  to  the 
Indian  mind,  vide  Birth  of  Parasu-Eama,  Maurice,  Ant.  Ind.,  II, 
93,  and  of  Chrishna,  Harivansa  Lect.  59,  Langlois.  According  to 
the  Mongols,  "  Soudadani...epou3a  Maha-mai,  qui,  quoique  vierge, 
con9ut  par  I'influence  divine  un  fils  le  15  du  dernier  mois  d'  ete,'* 
Klaproth,  Mem.  sur  I'Asie,  II,  p.  61.  Whether,  however,  the  idea 
was  borrowed  from  the  Christians  by  the  Tartars,  or  whether  it  is 
original  among  them  may  bo  a  question.    For  I  find  among  the 


176  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

Stances  this  dogma  of  Tartar  Buddhism^^  could  scarcely 
have  reached  Hieronymus ;  and  he  here  writes,  it  may 
be  presumed,  on  the  authority  of  Archelaus  or  Epi- 
phanius  and  confounds  through  ignorance  theManichaean 
with  the  Indian  Buddha. 

With  regard  to  the  Buddha  of  Archelaus,  Cyril  and 
Epiphanius,  when  we  remember  the  many  points  of  at 
least  superficial  resemblance  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  and  the  proselytising  spirit  of  both  reli- 
gions, we  may  well  wonder  that  so  few  of  the  early 
Christian  fathers  have  known  the  name  of  Buddha ;  and 
that  of  these  few  Archelaus  and  his  copyists  have  so 
little  appreciated  its  religious  significance,  that  they 
speak  of  it  merely  as  of  a  name  assumed  by  Terebin- 
thus,  and  so  assumed  Epiphanius  asserts,  because  it  is 
the  Assyrian  equivalent  of  the  Greek  word  Tere- 
binthus.^^  They  in  fact  connect  the  Manichsean  heresy 
with  India,^^  not  through  the  name   of  Buddha,  but 


Mongols  that  Alankava,  the  ancestress  of  three  great  Tartar 
tribes,  after  a  certain  night  vision,  "se  trouva  fort  surprise  de 
cette  apparition;  mais  elle  le  fut  beaucoup  plus,  lorsqu'elle  apper- 
9ut  qu'elle  etait  grosse  sans  qu'elle  eut  connu  aucun  homme.'* 
Alankava.  Diet.  Orient.,  D'Herbelot;  but  see  Observations,  iv, 
p.  339,  id.  And  of  the  great  Lao  Tseu,  who  is  somewhat  anterior 
to  Buddah,  the  Chinese  believe  that  his  mother  conceived  him 
impressed  "  de  la  vertu  vivifiantedu  Ciel  et  de  la  Terre."  Mailla, 
Hist,  de  la  Chine,  xiii,  p.  571. 

17  Indeed  I  suspect  that  the  Tartars  were  not  at  this  time 
Buddhists,  for  of  the  Buddhist  faith  Klaproth  writes,  "  elle  n'a 
commencee  a  se  repandre  au  nord  de  I'Hindoustan  que  a.d.  60; 
et  beaucoup  plus  tard  (the  7th  century,  id.,  p.  88),  dans  le  Thibet 
et  dans  les  autres  contrees  de  I'Asie  Centrale,"  u.  s.,  p.  93. 

^*  TepT]Bii^^duv...jxeTOPOiJLaa6cvTos  Boi/SSa  Kara  rrju  Aaavpiocv  yKcaaaav, 
Epiph.,  ih. 

19  "Error  quoque  Indicus  Manetem  tenuit  qui  duo  pugnantia 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  177 

tlirongli  Scythianus  and  his  Indian  travels  and  famili- 
arity with  Indian  learning. 

But  if  the  Indian  Buddha  was  unknown  to  Archelaus, 
he  certainly  was  not  unknown  to  Scythianus,  who  took 
the  name,  prohably  because  it  was  symbolical  of  his  own 
mission,  and  of  himself  as  destined  to  inaugurate  a  new 
era  in  the  history  of  mankind;  and  because  by  it  he 
connected  his  own  system  of  religion,  which  was  eclectic 
and  conciliatory,  with  the  religions  of  the  East.  But 
this  notwithstanding,  Manichaeism,  the  Gnostic  perhaps 
excepted,  is  that  scheme  of  Christianity  with  which  the 
Buddhist  faith  has  the  least  afi&nity.  For  the  Mani- 
chsean  was  an  essentially  speculative,  metaphysical 
creed,  or  rather  a  philosophy  from  and  to  which  a  reli- 
gion and  morality  were  derived  and  attached,  and  of 
which  Manes  was  but  the  author  and  expounder. 
Buddhism  on  the  other  hand  spite  of  its  real  atheism 
and  its  Nirvana  is  a  religion  eminently  practical,  formal, 
and  ritual,  of  which  Buddha  is  the  great  central  sun, 
and  his  example,  wisdom,  and  precepts,  the  world 
wherein  his  followers  live,  move,  and  have  their  being.^^^ 

numina  introduxit/'  Eplarem  Syrus  from  Assemann,  thoug-li  as 
Assemann  very  justly  observes  the  two  hostile  deities  are  evidence 
not  of  an  Indian  but  a  Zendian  origin. 

20  See,  however,  Lassen,  Ind.  Alterthumsb.,  Ill,  p.  406,  who 
finds  traces  of  the  influence  of  Buddhism  in  the  religion  of  Manes. 
1st.  In  the  two  opposite  principles  of  Manichaiisin.  2nd.  In  its 
account  of  the  world's  origin.  3rd.  In  the  laws  which  it  supposes 
determine  the  several  existences  of  individual  souls  in  their  pro- 
gress towards  final  emancipation ;  and  4th.  In  its  final  destruction 
of  the  world.  But  without  denying  that  these  dogmas  may  have 
been  borrowed  from  Buddhism,  it  must  be  allowed  that  they  may 
just  as  probably  be  the  result  of  independent  thought,  applied  to 

N 


178  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

These  notices  relating  to  Biidcllia  and  extending  over 
some  century  and  a  half,  I  have  thrown  together  for 
convenience  sake  and  because  they  show  that  Eoman 
knowledge  of  India  and  Indian  matters  was  on  the 
decline.  I  return  now  to  the  times  immediately  suc- 
ceeding the  fall  of  Palmyra. 

It  would  be  absurd  to  suppose  that  tlie  destruction  of 
Palmyra  however  much  it  affected  put  an  end  to  the 
Indian  trade  through  the  Persian  gulf.  That  would 
find  new  channels  for  itself  and  live  on  so  long  as  it 
proved  remunerative  to  the  carriers  and  merchants 
engaged  in  it.  It  seems  in  fact  as  we  gather  from  a 
passage  of  Amimianus  Marcellinus  to  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  Batne.  This  Batne  situated  at  no  great 
distance  from  the  Euphrates,  about  sixty  miles  north  of 
Thapsacus,  and  a  day's  journey  from  Edessa,^^  was  when 
Strabo  and  even  Ptolemy  wrote  a  place  of  so  little  im- 
portance that  it  escaped  their  notice ;  in  the  reign  of 
Constantius  some  seventy-three  years  after  the  fall  of 
Palmyra  Ammianus  describes  it  as  a  rich  commercial 

the  great  problems  of  which  they  are  one  of  a  very  limited  num- 
ber of  solutions. 

21  "Ab  Euphrate  flumine  brevi  spatio  disparatur."  Am.  Marc, 
X,  2,  iii,  iro\t(Tna  fnv  Ppaxv  kui  \oyov  ovSevos  a^iop,  rjfxepas  Se  65(f  Edcaarjs 
Siexoy-  Procopius  de  Bel.  Persico,  II,  12,  209.  Asseman  (I,  2S3)  in 
the  opening  chapters  to  his  life  of  S.  Jacob  Sarugensis  has  collected 
agooddeal  of  information  about  Batne,  yet  strange  to  say,  he  makes 
no  mention  of  Ammianus  Marcellanus'  notice  of  it,  far  the  most 
important  of  all  that  have  come  down  to  us,  and  confounds  with 
it  a  Batne  in  Chalcis,  which  Julian  so  pleasingly  describes  in  a 
letter  zo  Libanius,  Epistola  xxvii.  Of  tJie  Batne,  for  he  visited  it 
also,  he  could  have  had  no  such  pleasing  an  impression.  Am. 
Mar.  xxiii,  II. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  179 

city,  and  as  celebrated  for  its  great  fair  which  took 
place  in  the  early  part  of  September  and  was  frequented 
by  merchants  and  all  sorts  of  people  from  every  part  of 
the  world,  who  crowded  thither  to  trade  for  the  products 
and  wares  of  India  and  the  Seres.  How  many  years 
after  the  ruin  of  Palmyra  passed  away  before  Batne 
reached  this  height  of  prosperity  we  have  no  means  of 
ascertaining;  btit  however  rapid  its  growth,  its  decay 
must  have  been  almost  as  rapid,  for  in  less  than  two 
centuries  its  wealth  and  glory  were  already  forgotten 
and  Procopius  contemptuously  mentions  it  as  a  small 
and  insignificant  town,^^ 

We  now  turn  to  Eufinus,  born  A.D.  330,  died  a.d. 
410,  and  his  short  notice  of  the  Indian  travels  of  Metro- 
dorus  and  Meropius.^^  He  speaks  of  them  as  philoso- 
phers, and  of  their  having  gone  to  India  for  the  purpose 
of  seeing  its  towns  and  country,  and  the  world  gene- 
rally.2*  He  tells  besides  of  Meropius,  that  he  was  a 
Tyrian  and  travelled,  stirred  by  the  example  of  Metro- 
dorus;  that  he  took  with  him  ^desius  and  Frumen- 

22  Zosimus  speaking  too  of  Julian's  visit,  calls  it  an  insignificant 
town,  TToKixviov  ri.  Hist.  1.  iii,  c.  12.  From  Asseman,  u.  s.,  it 
would  seem  as  if  Batne  rose  or  fell  according  as  Persians  and 
Romans  were  at  peace  or  at  war  with  each  other.  He  shows  how 
it  flourished  under  St.  James  of  Sarug,  and  there  was  then  peace 
between  Chosroes  and  the  Romans. 

23  Hist.  Eccles,,  L.  I,  c.  ix. 

24  "  Inspiciendorum  locorum  et  orbis  perscrutandi  gratis  ulteri- 
orem  dicitur  Indiam  penetrasse."  ih.  Schrockh  however  sends 
Meropius  to  Ethiopia  only  ( Kirschengeschichte,  vi,  24,  as  also 
Socrates,  a.d.  439,  Hist.  Eccles.,  I,  xv,  and  Sozomen,  a.d.  446,  II, 
xxiii),  though  both  evidently  writing  on  the  authority  of  Rufinua. 
Their  India  interior  is  from  the  context  clearly  Ethiopian. 


180  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

tins,  lads,  "piierulos,"  liis  relations  and  pupils,  and  that 
after  he  had  examined  and  observed  every  thing  in 
India  that  was  noteworthy,^^  he  and  his  wards  took 
ship  to  return  home.  He  goes  on  to  say,  that  on  the 
way  their  w^ater  and  provisions  failed  them,  and  that 
they  made  for  an  Ethiopian  port ;  and  that  the  inhabi- 
tants happening  to  be  at  variance  with  Eome,  seized 
the  ship  and  massacred  all  the  crew  and  passengers 
save  Frumentius  and  ^desius,  whom  for  their  youth's 
sake  they  spared,  and  presented  to  the  king.  He  adds, 
that  in  the  course  of  time  the  king  died,  and  that  his 
widowed  queen  entrusted  his  one  infant  son  and  suc- 
cessor, together  with  the  government,  to  the  care  of 
Frumentius,  who  in  fact  ruled  the  country  till  the  king 
came  of  age,  when  he  gave  up  his  trust  and  authority 
together,  and  asked,  and  with  difficulty  got,  permission 
to  return  to  his  native  land.  That  he  then  came  to 
Alexandria,  and  there  visited  Athanasius,  not  long  be- 
fore consecrated  its  bishop,  a.d.  336,  and  that  to  him  he 
spoke  of  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  Ethiopia,  and  his 
labours  in  its  cause ;  and  was  by  him  induced  to  accept 
the  see  of  Auxume,  the  first  Ethiopian  bishopric. 

With  the  visits  of  these  Eoman  travellers  we  may 
connect  an  Indian  embassy ,2^  which  reached  Constan- 
tinople in  the  last  year  of  Constantine's  life,  a.d.  336-7, 

25  « igitur  pervisis  et  in  notitiam  captis  his  quibus  animus 
pascebatur." — ih. 

26  iv^aov  rwp  irpos  aviaxovra  r]\iov  rrpea  fie  is... So/pa  KO(xt^ovTes..,a  Se 
irpoff'qyov  Tw  fiaariXd,  ttjv  €ts  ( avrctiv)  coK^avov  Sr]\ovvTes  avrov  KparrjaiV 
KOiojs  ul  rwv  Ii/Sajj/  X'^P**^  Kadrjyffioves  eiKovcov  ypacpais,  avdpiauTCct/  r'  avrov 
avaQr]fxaai  Tinupres,  avTOKparupa  Kai  fiaaiXea  yvwpt^eiv  ufxoKoyuvv. — 
Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constant.,  L.  iv,  c.  50. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  181 

and  broiiglit  with  it  strange  animals,  and  all  sorts  of 
brilliant  and  precious  stones.  These  the  ambassadors 
presented  to  Constantine,  in  token  that  his  sovereignty- 
extended  to  their  ocean.  They  told  him  too  of  pictures 
and  statues  dedicated  to  him  by  the  Princes  of  India 
who  thus  acknowledged  him  as  their  autocrat  and 
king. 

I  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  its  many  and  often 
successful  wars  with  Persia,  and  its  large  and  continued 
demand  for  the  products  of  the  East  had  magnified 
throughout  India  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  Eoman 
Empire;  and  I  understand  how  the  appearance  of 
Eomans  at  their  courts  might  probably  induce  the 
Hindu  kings  to  express,  by  an  embassy,  their  respect 
and  friendly  feelings  for  the  Eoman  Emperor;  but  I 
cannot  easily  believe  that  any  independent  princes 
should,  of  their  ow^n  motion  and  with  no  prospect  of 
gain,  thus  hurry  to  bow  themselves  before  Eoman 
supremacy.  In  the  lowly  homage  attributed  to  them, 
I  trace  the  flattery  of  court  interpreters  and  court  news- 
men, who  would  thus  raise  Constantine  to  a  level  ^vitli 
Augustus,  as  his  court-poets  had  before  raised  Augustus 
to  a  level  with  Alexander. 

To  return  to  the  travellers,  Ammianus  Marcellinus^^ 
(and  he  refers  to  some  Book  of  his  History  now  lost, 
where  the  matter  was  treated  at  length),  in  defending' 
Julian  against  those  who  charged  him  with  having 
instigated  the  Persian  war,  asserts  that  that  war  was 

^  XXV,  iv.  "  Sciaiit...non  Julianum  sed  Constantium  ardores 
Parthicos  succendisse  cum  Metrodori  mendaciis  avidius  acquiescit, 
ut  dudum  retulimus  plane.'* 


182  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

brought  on  by  Constantius,  who  too  rashly  gave  credit 
to  the  falsehoods  of  Metrodorus.  ISTow  this  Metrodorus, 
Cedrenus,  of  the  eleventh  century,  has  identified  with 
the  Metrodorus  of  Eufinus.  He  tells  us  of  him,  that  he 
was  Persian-born  and  pretended  to  philosophy ;  that  he 
travelled  to  India  and  the  Brahmans,  and  made  for  and 
introduced  among  them  water-mills  and  baths ;  and  that 
by  his  strictly  ascetic  life,  he  won  their  confidence  and 
respect,  and  was  admitted  into  the  very  penetralia  of 
their  temples,  whence  he  stole  pearls  and  other  precious 
stones.  These  jewels,  together  with  others  entrusted  to 
him  by  the  Hindu  king  as  presents  for  the  Eoman 
Emperor,  he  offered  to  Constantine  as  gifts  from  himself, 
and  at  the  same  time  gave  him  to  understand  that  the 
Persians  had  seized  and  appropriated  a  parcel  of  other 
jewels  which  he  had  sent  overland.  On  this,  Constan- 
tine wrote  curtly  to  the  Persian  king,  and  receiving  no 
answer,  put  an  end  to  the  peace  between  them.^^ 

Valesius  is  of  opinion  that  Cedrenus  has  here  given 
us  those  falsehoods  of  Metrodorus  which  produced  the 
Persian  war,  and  the  falsehoods  to  which  Marcellinus 
referred.     But  I  w^ould  observe : — 


28  T^  fiai  gT-ft  7-fjj  jSao'iAewy  rov  K(avaravTivov...MriTpo^wpos  ris  ITepco- 
yevTjs  Trpoairon](Taii€uos  (piKo(To<peiv  airrjXdev  tv  Iv8iav  kui  rovs  fipaxixavas, 
Kai  XRVf^f'^h^vos  eyKpareia.  iroWr]  yeyoveu  avrois  ae^aaros.  eipya^ero  56 
vdpojJLvAovs  Kai  hovrpa,  /J.^Xf"'  '''ore  fin]  yvupi^opava  -nap  avTois.  ovtos  ev 
Tois  advTois  us  €v<Te&ris  eicriuv  KiOovs  jifxiovs  ..ifcpei\€To.  cAo^e  Se  kui  itapa 
rov  j8o<n\6ws  ruv  Ivdoov  waie  tip  PacriXei  Sapa  KOniaai. . .Kai. . .SedooKe  ravra 
&s  iSia  Tcp  fiaaihti.  Qav/xa^ovTi  Se  oi/Ty  ecprj  Kai  aWa  Sia  yrjs  ir poire fi^pai, 
aW*  ttcpaipedrjuai  vno  Uepacov.  ypa<pei  ovv  airoTopLUS  Kuvaravrivos,  irpos 
'2airupr]v  anoaraArjvai  avra  Kai  Ss^a/jievos  ovk  avTaire<TTei\€'  hia  rovro  e\vQr] 
7]  iip'nvq.—Cedien.i  Synop.,  Hist.,  pp.  518-7,  I,  Bonn  ed. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  183 

1st.  That  Cedrenus'  Metrodorus  played  not  upon 
Constantius,  but  upon  Constantine. 

2ad.  That  while  Cedrenus  accounts  for  the  Persian 
war  w^hich  broke  out  A.D.  336-7,  Marcellinus  alludes  to 
that  begun  a.d.  357 ;  that  during  wdiicli  Constantius 
died.  For  had  he  been  speaking  of  the  first  war,  as  his 
object  was  to  exculpate  Julian  from  having  instigated 
it,  instead  of  looking  about  for  Metrodorus  and  his  lies, 
he  would  merely  have  pointed  to  the  date  of  Julian's 
birth,  A.D.  331,2^  and  the  accusation  would  of  itself  have 
fallen  to  the  ground.  The  Metrodorus  of  Cedrenus 
cannot  be  the  Metrodorus  of  Marcellinus. 

But  how  about  the  Metrodorus  of  Marcellinus  and 
Eufinus  ?  If  we  turn  to  Eufinus'  notice  of  Frumentius, 
we  find  that  he  was  consecrated  Bishop^^  of  Ethiopia 
about  A.D.  326.  If  we  weigh  well  the  adventures  of  his 
life  from  the  day  he  left  Tyre,  to  that  in  which  he 
landed  in  Alexandria,  we  cannot  surely  crowd  them  into 
a  less  space  than  twenty-five  years.  He  will  then  have 
set  out  for  India  about  a.d.  302,  and  Metrodorus,  who 
preceded  him,  about  A-D.  300.  But  Metrodorus,  already 
known  as  a  philosopher,  must  have  been  at  the  very 
least  twenty-five  years  old,  and  above  eighty- three 
w^hen  (a.d.  357)  with  gratuitous  and  purposeless  false- 
hoods he  stirred  up  war  between  Persia  and  the  Eoman 
Empire.  Malice,  no  doubt,  belongs  to  every  age ;  but 
this  kind  of  malice  at  such  an  age  is  not  probable — more 

^  V.  Smith's  Greek  and  Eom.  Biographical  Diet.,  Julianus. 

30  According  to  Theophanes,  ninth  century,  Meropius  in  the 
time  of  Constantine  was  the  first  Apostle  of  the  Ethiopians,  Fru- 
mentius their  first  Bishop.— Chronog.,  p.  35,  Byz.  Hist.,  Bonn  ed. 


184  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

probable  is  it  that  the  Metrodorus  of  Euiinus  is  other 
than  the  Metrodorus  of  Marcelliuus. 

But  how  if  Cedrenus'  and  Kufinus'  Metrodorus  were 
one  and  the  same  ?  Cedrenus,  I  have  little  doubt, 
thought  to  identify  them.  And  as  he  brings  his  hero 
to  Byzantium,  and  before  Constantine,  a.d.  327,  his 
Metrodorus  and  Eufinus'  not  only  bear  the  same  name, 
but  are  cotemporaries,  and  had  both  visited  India ;  but 
here  all  resemblance  ends.  The  Metrodorus  of  Eufinus 
was  a  philosopher  and  not  unknown ;  Cedrenus',  with 
a  Greek  name,  was  a  Persian  and  a  charlatan.  How, 
besides,  if  they  were  identical,  account  for  the  silence  of 
Eufinus  as  to  the  adventures  of  a  man  who  had  become 
famous  or  infamous,  and  who  must  have  been  known  to 
his  informant,  ^Edesius,  at  least  by  report  ?  A  gossiping 
historian,  (I  hasten  to  admit  that  his  gossip  is  strictly 
ecclesiastic  and  religious),  I  do  not  believe  that  Eufinus, 
had  he  known  it,  would  willingly  have  let  die  this 
story  of  a  Persian  and  a  philosopher  ;  a  heathen  almost 
certainly,  and  if  a  Christian  probably  a  heretic,  from 
which  so  pleasing  a  moral  might  have  been  drawn.  No, 
the  Metrodorus  of  Cedrenus  stands  by  himself,  his  own 
clumsy  creation  probably. 

But,  again,  as  to  Eufinus  himself.  His  chronology  is 
always  loose  and  vague  enough  at  the  best,  but  in  this 
his  notice  of  Frumentius,  as  gathered  from  the  lips  of 
^desius,  Prumentius'  friend  and  companion,  one  might 
expect  some  approach  to  accuracy.  Now,  reasoning  on 
his  own  data,  I  have  approximately  fixed  on  the  year 
A.D.  302,  confirmed  by  Tillemont^^  as  the  year  in  which 

3'  Hist,  des  Empereurs,  notes  sur  Constantin,  n.  Ixiii. 


CLAUDIUS   TO  JUSTINIAN.  185 

Meropius,  with  his  wards,  set  out  for  India.  But 
Valesius^^  and  Xeander,^^  while  accepting  Eufinus'  date 
for  the  ordination  of  Frumentius,  refer  to  a  letter  of  the 
Emperor  Constantius  to  Aizana  and  Sazana,  kings  of 
Auxume,  which  is  quoted  at  length  by  Athanasius  in  his 
Apologia,  and  from  which  it  would  seem  that  Frumentius 
was  ordained  or  consecrated  to  Auxume,^  while  Atha- 
nasius was  being  judged  and  condemned  for  heresy  at 
Antioch,  a.d.  355-6.  Hence  a  difficulty  w^iich  Baronius 
solves,  cutting  the  Gordian  knot  with  a  vengeance,  by 
supposing  two  Frumentius's,  the  one  a  Bishop  of 
Ethiopia,  the  other  of  Auxume,^^  but  which  is  in  general 
slurred  over  by  the  historian,  who  satisfies  himself  with 
just  mentioning  this  discrepancy  of  dates  and  then 
quietly  assuming  that  Eufinus'  is  the  correct  one.  But 
how  stands  the  case  ?  On  the  one  side,  we  have  an 
official  letter  from  a  Eoman  emperor  to  the  two  kings  of 
Auxume,  implying  the  recent  ordination  of  their  bishop, 
and  we  have  that  letter  quoted,  and  so  far  silently  ac- 
quiesced in,  by  the  ordaining  bishop.      On  the  other 

^  y.  Valesii  Hist.  Eccl.,  Socratis,  p.  9. 

33  Kirchengescliichte,  II,  p.  256. 

8*  Constantii  Tyrannis  Auxura.,  Epist.  in  tlie  Apologia  Athanasii 
ad  Constantium.  Constantius  after  insisting  on  the  necessity  for 
a  unity  of  faith  advises  the  kings  to  send  Frumentius  back  to 
Alexandria,  there  to  submit  his  life  and  doctrine  to  the  Ven. 
Bishop  George  and  the  other  Egyptian  bishops,  lare  yap  ^rjirou 
Kai  fitfxvr](Tde.,.6Ti  rov  ^pu/xevriov  rovrov  eis  ravTrfv  rrjv  ra^iv  rov  fiiou 
Kari(jTr)(Tiv  Adavaaios  fxvpiois  evoxos  wv  kukois,  us  ovStv  rotv . . .iyKX-q^iaruv 
...SiKaius  icx^v  iwiKvaaaOai,  axniKa  Tr}S  fx€v  KadeSpas  €Kir€irTa>K6. 

85  Theophanis  Chronog.,  p.  346,  speaks  of  the  Auxumites  E|ou- 
Hiroov  as  Jews  and  converted  to  Christianity  in  Justinian's  time, 
in  consequence  of  a  vow  made  by  their  King  Adad,  to  become 
Christian  should  he  conquer  Damiau  the  Homerite  king. 


186  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

side,  we  have  Eufiniis'  reminiscences,  wliicli  are  but  the 
reflection  of  what  -^desius  himself  remembered  and 
told.26 

What  credit  then  is  due  to  ^desius  ?  Schrockh 
tells  of  Eufinus,^''  that  he  was  born  in  Concordia,  almost 
on  the  Adriatic,  about  a.d.  330  ;  that  he  was  baptised 
in  371 ;  that  shortly  afterwards  at  Alexandria  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  a  noble  Eoman  lady,  Melania,^ 
whom  in  a.d.  378  he  accompanied  to  Jerusalem,  and 
then  first  visited  Palestine.  At  or  about  this  time  he 
must  have  known  ^desius,  priest  at  Tyre.  But 
^desius,  if  "puerulus"  in  302,^^  was  in  378  much  past 
eighty,  though  Eufinus  makes  no  allusion  to  his  age, 
and  his  memory,  especially  as  regards  dates,  could  not 
have  been  very  bright  and  clear.  Between  his  authority 
then  and  that  of  a  royal  letter  who  could  hesitate,  would 
also  hesitate  between  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs  and  an  Act 
of  Parliament. 

But,   if  we   accept  the   letter,  we   must  set  aside 

^^  Quae  nos  ita  gesta,  non  opinione  vulgi  sed  ipso  ^desio  Tyri 
presbytero  postmodum  facto,  qui  Frumentii  comes  prius  fuerat, 
referente  cognovimus,  x,  ix,  c. 

3~  Kirchengesch.  x,  pp.  12-14;  the  Art.  Eufinus,  in  Smith's 
G.  and  R.  Biographical  Diet.,  v.  Eufinus — might  be  a  translation 
of  Schrockh's  account. 

38  In  his  Lausiaca  Hist,  cxix,  Palladius  has  given  a  life  of  Mela- 
nia,  and  how  the  east  and  west,  north  and  south  were  not  un- 
knowing of  her  charities.  His  next  chapter  is  directed  to  another 
Melania,  a  niece  of  the  first,  which  I  recommend  to  those  who 
would  wish  to  know  something  of  the  wealth  and  possessions  of  a 
Eoman  lady. 

39  Socrates,  unde  edoctus  nescio,  calls  the  children  vai^apia... 
'E\\-nvtKr)5  ovK  ufioipa  ha\eKTrjs,  more  than  ten  years  of  age  probably. 
Hist.  Eccl.,  ut  sup. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  187 

CeJrenus*  narrative  as  apocryphal,  and  Eufinus'  dates 
as  incorrect ;  and  as  Atlianasius  was  condemned  by  the 
Arian  Council  of  Aries,  A.D.  353,  and  finally  deposed  by 
that  of  Milan,  a.d.  355  f^  but  seems  to  have  ordained 
and  consecrated  Frumentius  while  yet  only  under  the 
imputation  of  heresy ;  I  conclude  that  he  ordained  and 
consecrated  Frumentius  between  the  years  352  and  354 
A.D. ;  and  allowing,  as  we  have  done,  twenty-five  years 
for  the  events  of  his  life,  he  will  have  set  out  for  India 
under  the  guardianship  of  Meropius  about  a.d.  327-8, 
but  whether  immediately  after,  or  as  Valesius  supposes 
on  the  return  of,  Metrodorus,  we  have  no  means  of 
ascertaining. 

But  if  we  put  aside  Eufinus'  date,  what  about  his 
facts  ?  Both  from  his  narrative  and  the  royal  letter,  we 
gather  that  at  Auxume  there  were  many  Christians,  and 
that  the  Government  also  was  Christian.  But  here  all 
agreement  ends.  The  letter  is  addressed  to  two  kings, 
the  joint  sovereigns  of  Auxume  ;  the  narrative  knows  of 
but  one  king,  the  ward  from  his  childhood  of  Frumen- 
tius, and  shows  a  state  of  things  scarcely  compatible 
with  a  double  sovereignty ;  unless  indeed  we  assume 
that  this  double  sovereignty  was  the  result  of  a  revolu- 
tion which  broke  out  in  the  short  interval  between 
Frumentius'  departure  from,  and  his  return  to,  Auxume. 
But  if  we  see  no  reason  to  assume  anything  of  the  kind, 
we  must  again  choose  between  the  royal  letter  and  the 
senile  reminiscences  of  ^desius ;  and  for  the  royal  letter 
I  avow  a  weakness. 

^  Athanasias,  Smith's  Bio  graphical  Diet. 


188  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

During  the  reign  of  Constantius  we  also  hear  of 
Theophilus  the  Indian.  Philostorgius  relates  of  hiin,*^ 
that  he  was  born  at  Dibons,  an  island  of  the  Indians, 
that  when  very  young  he  was  sent  by  his  people  as 
a  hostage  to  Constantino,  and  that,  educated  in  a 
monastery,  he  was  sent  at  the  head  of  a  mission  to  the 
Homerites.  Dibous,  or  rather  the  Dibenoi,  Valesius,^^ 
and  Shrockh  after  him,  have  identified  with  the  Diu  of 
the  embassy  to  Julian,  and  Dibous  with  Divu,  Diu,  an 
island  lying  off  the  Indus.  But  what  relation  could 
possibly  have  existed  between  the  Divi  and  Constantino, 
which  should  have  obliged  them  to  send  hostages  to  Eome  ? 
I  find  that  Theophilus  is  often  called  the  Blemmyan, 
and  his  mission  points  to  an  Arab  origin,  and  I  incline  to 
think  that  Dibous*^  is  some  Arab  island  or  promontory 
connected  with  the  Debai  or  Dedebai  of  Agatharcides. 

*^  TttyTTjs  5e  T77S  irpfd^eias  (to  the  Homerites)  cv  rois  irpoorois  tjv  kui 
&eo(l>L\o5  6  IvSos,  6s  naXai  n^v  Kwv(TTauTivov...€Ti  Tr)v  r}\iKiau  Vfuraros, 
Kad^  6fjL7]pLav  irapa  rwv  Ai^rjfoop  KaKovpavwv  ct$  Voufxaiovs  ecnaXT].  Aj/SouS 
y  idriv  avrois  rj  uTjaos  x^P°'-^  *''*"'  I»'5w*'  Se  KOi  oinoi  <t)€pov(Ti  ro  €Tru>vviiiov 
...Tov  fievToi  @eo<pi\ov...Tov  fjLovavKiov  aueKeadai  fiiou.  Ecc.  Hist, 
111,4 

^  Ad  locum  cita.  annotatio. 

*3  V,  ih.,  §  5.  After  having  preached  much  and  founded  churches 
among  the  Homeritse,  and  extended  his  labours  even  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  €iri  rrjv  A</3o5  vri(Tov...ar€ir\ivae  KUKfidfu 
€is  rrfv  a\\7}v  a<piKeTo  1v5ik7]v,  and  there  corrected  much  that  was 
wrong.  Then  in  the  next  chapter,  6,  fK  5t  TavTTjs  ttjs  fieya\ris 
Apa$ias  CIS  tovs  Av^ovfiiras  KaKovfifPous  airaipn  AiOionas,  He  tells  how 
they  live  at  the  entrance  of  the  Eed  Sea,  and  beyond  them  the 
Suroi,  in  whose  land  grow  xylecassia,  cassia,  and  cinnamon,  trpos 
fieu  5e  rovTovs  6  &eo<pi\os  ovk  a<piKero.  But  after  he  had  done  in 
Auxume  all  he  had  to  do  he  returned  to  Rome.  Does  not  all  this 
show  mere  travel  in  Arabia,  up  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  Eed 
Sea?     See  also  Agatharcides  de  Mare  Eryth.,  §  95. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  189 

The  next  incidental  notice  of  India  belonging  to  these 
times  is  to  be  found  in  Damascius'  Life  of  Isidorus  as 
preserved  by  Photins.**  It  is  an  account  of  some 
Brahmans  who  visited  Alexandria  and  lodged  in  the 
house  of  Severus,  Consul  a.d.  470.  They  lived,  we  are 
told,  very  reputably  after  the  manner  of  their  people. 
They  frequented  neither  the  public  baths  nor  any  of  the 
city  sights,  but  kept  within  doors  as  much  as  they  could. 
They  ate  palms  and  rice  and  drank  water.  They  were 
not  mountain  Brahmans  nor  yet  common  Indian  folk, 
but  something  between  both,  just  agents  for  the  Brah- 
mans in  the  city  and  for  the  city  with  the  Brahmans. 
What  they  reported  of  the  Brahmans  quite  tallied  with 
all  one  reads  about  them  :  as  that  by  their  prayers  they 
can  bring  down  rain  and  avert  famine  and  pestilence 
and  other  incurable  ills.*^  They  told  also  of  the  one- 
footed  men,  and  the  great  seven-headed  serpent,  and 
other  strange  marvels. 

I  suspect  that  the  prophetic  and  supernatural  powers 
of  the  Brahmans  were  greater  on  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  than  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges.  The 
one-footed  men  were  a  favourite  Hindu  myth  and  known 
in  Europe  from  the  days  of  Ctesias.  The  seven-headed 
serpent  may  be  referred  either  to  that  king  of  the 
Xagas  who  with  his  seven  folds  covered  the  body  of 

**  Vide  Photii  Bib.,  ed.  Schotti,  p.  1042  :  7}kov  Se  trpos  rov  'S.e^vpov 
Kai  Bpaxfiavai  Kara  rrtv  A\6|oi/5p€to»',  Kai  eSelaro  a*po.s  oiKicf  tSicf,  etc. 
This  visit  must  have  taken  place  therefore  before  Severus  took  up 
his  residence  in  Eome,  and  before  his  consulship. 

^^  So  Onesicritus  :  fc^r;  8'  avTovi  nai  rwu  irfpi  <pv(Tiv  -jroWa  e^eraaai 
Kai  TTpaarjfjLaaiwv  of.i^pu)v,  avxfJi-ov,  vuawv,  Strabo,  xv,  I,  65,  and  Die 
Crysostom,  Oratio  xlix. 


190  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

Buddha  and  shielded  him  with  his  crests,  or  to  the 
seven-headed  serpent  on  which  Vishnu  reposes.*^  But 
whatever  the  tales  of  these  men  the  question  arises,  why 
came  they  to  Alexandria?  They  were  not  merchants, 
or  they  would  have  been  foimd  in  its  markets ;  and  they 
travelled  neither  for  their  own  instruction  nor  for  that 
of  others,  or  they  would  have  mixed  with  the  world  and 
not  avoided  the  haunts  of  men.  Wliatever  might  have 
been  their  object,  they  so  lived  that  they  could  learn 
nothing,  teach  nothing. 

Of  direct  notices  of  India  subsequent  to  the  fall  of 
Palmyra  I  find  a  short  one  in  a  "  Description  of  the 
Whole  World,"  extant  only  in  Latin  translations,  but 
originally  written  in  Greek  about  a.d.  350  and  seemingly 
by  some  eclectic  in  religion.  In  the  farthest  east  it 
places  the  Eden  of  Moses  and  the  sources  of  that  great 
river,  which  dividing  itself  into  four  branches  is  sever- 
ally known  as  the  Geon,  Phison,  Tigris,  and  Euphrates. 
Here  dwell — and  we  are  referred  to  the  authority  of 
some  unnamed  historian^^ — the  Carmani,  a  good  and 
pious  people,  who  know  neither  moral  nor  physical  ill. 
They  all  live  to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and 
no  father  ever  sees  his  children  die.^^     They  drink  wild 

*^  Hist,  du  Bouddha,  Foucaux  trans.,  p.  354,  And  compare 
Vishnu  Purana,  by  Wilson,  p.  205,  where  Ananta  is  described 
with  a  thousand  heads,  with  the  plate  in  Moor's  Pantheon  repre- 
senting Vishnu  on  the  seven-headed  "Ananta  contemplating  the 
creation,  with  Brahma  on  a  lotos  springing  from  his  navel  to  per- 
form it/'  plate  7. 

*'  "  Et  hsec  quidem  de  prsedictis  gentibus  historicus  ait,"  Juni- 
oris  Philosophi  Descriptio  totius  Orbis,  §  21,  p.  516,  II,  Geog. 
Grseci  Minores. 

48  Their  great  age  the  Carmani  share  with  others :   "  Cyrnos 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  191 

honey  and  pepper,  and  they  eat  a  bread  and  use  a  fire 
wliich  daily  come  down  from  heaven ;  and  the  fire  is  so 
hot  tliat  it  would  burn  them  up,  did  they  not  run  and 
hide  themselves  in  the  river  until  it  returned  to  its  own 
place.  They  wear  garments  of  a  stuff  that  scarcely  ever 
soils,  and  then  recovers  all  its  freshness  on  being  passed 
through  fire.  Next  them  to  the  west  are  the  Brahmans. 
Like  the  Carmani,  they  are  subject  to  no  king,  and  live 
happily  sharing  something  of  their  neighbours'  felicity. 
Their  food  is  fruits,  pepper,  and  honey.  Then  come  five 
other  nations,  and  we  have  reached  now  the  greater 
India,  whence  comes  silk  (or  wheat)  with  all  other 
necessaries,  and  the  Indians  live  happily  and  in  a 
country  large  and  fertile.  Next  to  India  Major  is  a 
land  which  is  rich  in  everything;  its  inhabitants  are 
skilled  in  war  and  the  arts,  and  aid  the  people  of  India 
Minor  in  their  wars  with  the  Persians.  Bordering  on 
this  land  is  India  Minor,  subject  to  India  Major ;  it  has 
numberless  herds  of  elephants  wliich  are  exported  to 
Persia. 

Though  our  author  parades  the  authorities  he  has 
consulted,  from  Moses  and  Berosus  to  Thucydides  and 
Josephus,  his  work,  which  is  rather  a  popular  description 
of  the  world  than  a  scientific  geography,  is  interesting 
only  when  it  treats  of  those  countries  and  places,  as 

Indorum  genus  Isigonus  annis  140  vivere.  Item  Ethiopas  Macro- 
bios  et  Seras  existimat,"  etc.,  etc.  Plin.,  Hist.  Nat.,  vii,  2 ;  Strabo, 
XV,  15.  But  their  other  blessings,  that  they  die  each  in  his  turn  and 
know  no  ills,  are  their  own;  but  hinted  at  as  characteristic  also  of 
the  happy  age  of  the  Mahabharata  :  "  Tandis  que  la  caste  des 
Ksyatryas  s'abonnait  h.  la  vertu...personne  ne  mourait  enfant." — 
I,  264,  Fouche's  Tr. 


192  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FEOM 

Syria  and  its  cities,  with  which  he  was  himself  ac- 
quainted. Of  the  far  East  his  account  is  especially 
meagre  and  would  be  worthless,  but  that  it  serves  to 
show  how  necessary  is  commercial  intercourse  to  keep 
alive  our  knowledge  of  other  and  distant  countries  ;  and 
how  very  soon  after  that  intercourse  had  ceased  India 
again  faded  away  into  the  land  of  myth  and  fable. 

Some  few  years  later  (a.d.  360-70)  Avienus  pub- 
lished a  Latin  hexametrical  version  of  Dionysius  Peri- 
egetes'  Geographical  Poem  of  the  AVorld.  And  though 
he  nowhere  shows  any  extraordinary  regard  for  his  text 
and  never  stops  at  any  alteration  of  it  to  suit  his  own 
taste  or  the  views  of  his  age,  I  observe  that  he  scrupul- 
ously follows  it  in  everything  relating  to  India. 

I  will  but  mention  Dracontius  (died  A.D.  450)  and 

Avitus  (a.d.  490),  who  the  one  in  his  Carmen  de  Deo, 

speaks  of  India  in  connexion  with  spices — 

"  India  tunc  primum  generans  pigmenta  per  herbas 
Eduxit  sub  sole  novo.** — i,  176. 

and  with  precious  stones  and  ivory — 

"  India  cum  gemmis  et  eburnea  monstra  minatur.*' — 307. 

while  the  other,  in  his  Poem  de  Mosai.  Hist.  Gestis, 
glorifies  the  Indians  because  they  receive  the  first  rays 
of  the  sun,*^  and  describes  them  as  black,  and  with  their 
hair  bound  back  off  the  forehead  f^  and  who  both — like 

49  .  .  .  .  "  Ubi  solis  abortu 

Vicinos  nascens  aurora  repercutit  Indos,"  196,  1. 
borrowed  probably  from  Avienus  "  pi-imam  coquit  banc  radiis  sol,*' 
1308,  and  Dionysius  Periegetes,  1110. 

w       "  Cffisaries  incompta  riget  quse  crine  supino 

Stringitur  lit  refugo  careat  frons  nuda  capiUo.** 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  193 

the  author  of  the  Description  of  the  Whole  World 
quoted  above — place  India  to  the  west  of  Eden,  whence 
the  rivers  bring  down  all  sorts  of  precious  stones  to  us 
common  mortals. ^^  They  add  nothing  to  our  knowledge 
of  India,  and  merely  illustrate  the  common-place  axiom, 
that  in  an  intellectually  inferior  age  fables  and  myths 
are  preferred  to  truth,  and  the  most  wonderful  tales  to 
the  best  ascertained  facts. 

To  this  age,  the  fifth  century,  also  probably  belongs 
Hierocles.  Of  his  work,  Philistores,  but  a  very  few 
fragments  have  been  preserved ;  and  of  these,  two  relate 
to  India  and  imply  that  he  had  himself  visited  India 
and  in  India  travelled.  The  first  from  Stephanos  of 
Byzantium,  under  Brachmanes,  is  to  this  effect ; — "  After 
this  I  thought  it  worth  my  while  to  go  and  visit  the 
Brahman  caste.^^  The  men  are  philosophers  dear  to 
the  gods,  and  especially  devoted  to  the  sun.  They  ab- 
stain from  all  flesh  meats  and  live  out  in  the  open  air, 
and  honour  truth.  Their  dress  is  made  of  the  soft  and 
skin-like  {BepfiaTcoBr})  fibres  of  stones,  which  they  weave 
into  a  stuff  that  no  fire  burns  or  water  cleanses.     When 

^  "  Est  locus  in  terrd  diffundens  quatuor  amnes,"  Dracont.  178. 
The  Ganges,  one  of  these,  brings  down  all  sorts  of  precious  stones. 
— So  Eudoxus  presents  to  Euergetes  from  India  aromatics  and 
precious  stones  :  uv  tovs  fiev  Karaifxpovaiv  ot  vorafioi  fiera  tuv  \prj<tfuv. 
Strabo  II,  III,  p.  81. 

**  Hie  fons  perspicuo  resplendens  gurgite  surgit, 

Eductum  leni  fontis  de  vertice  flumen 
Quatuor  in  largos  confestim  scinditur  amnes." — Avitus,  I. 
52  Edvos,  but  having  before  us  the  opinions  of  his  predecessors 
about  the  Brahmans  I  suspect  we  should  translate  "  nation,"  i.e. 
if  he  be  the  Hierocles  I  suppose. 

0 


194  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

their  clothes  get  soiled  or  dirty,  they  are  thrown  into  a 
blazing  fire,  and  come  out  quite  white  and  bright."  The 
second  from  the  Chiliads  of  Tzetzes  (VII  Hist.,  144  to 
716) :  "Then,"  he  says,  "I  came  to  a  country  very  dry 
and  burnt  up  by  the  sun.  And  all  about  this  desert  I 
saw  men  naked  and  houseless,  and  of  these  some  shaded 
their  faces  with  their  ears  and  the  rest  of  their  bodies 
with  their  feet  raised  in  the  air.  Of  these  men  Strabo 
has  a  notice,  as  also  of  the  no-heads  and  ten-heads  and 
four-hands-and-feet  men,  but  none  of  them  did  I  ever 
see,  quoth  Hierocles." 

Hierocles'  account  of  the  Brahmans  is  so  modest,  and 
his  explanation  of  the  one-footed  men  of  Strabo  so 
simple,  that  his  narrative  might  easily  be  accepted  as 
the  genuine  production  of  one  who  had  visited  India ; 
but  first :  for  the  asbestos  stuff  in  which  his  Brahmans 
are  clothed  and  which  we  have  no  reason  to  believe 
they  ever  wore,  but  which  as  it  was  an  Indian  manu- 
facture^^ and  rare  and  valuable  he  perhaps  substituted 
for  the  wonderful  earth- wooP*  Philostratus  imagined  for 

53  « Inventum  jam  est  quod  ignibns  non  absumeretur  ....  ar- 
dentesque  in  focis  conviviorum  ex  eo  vidimus  mappas,  sordibus 
exustis,  splendescentes  igni  niagis  quam  possent  aquis . . .  Nascitur 
in  desertis  adustisque  sole  Indise,  ubi  non  cadunt  imbres,  inter  diras 
serpentes;  assuescitque  vivere  ardendo,  rarum  inventu,  difficile 
textu  propter  brevitatem.  Eufus  color."  Pliny,  xix,  4.  Strabo, 
however,  speaks  of  it  as  a  product  of  Euboea,  and  in  bis  time  also 
used  for  napkins  :  ev  Se  rrj  Kapvarcp  /coi  ^  \i6os  ^verai  rj  ^aivofiePTj  kui 
v<paivofXivr\  aare  ra  iKp-q  xetpo/ia/crpo  yiviadai,  ^virwdevra  5'  eis  <pXoya 
^aWeaQai  Kai  airoKaOaipeadai,  x,  I.  B.,  p.  383. 

5*  'H  8e  v\t]  TTjy  €o6t)tos,  epiov  avrocpves,  rj  777  <f>vei,  XevKov  /xev  ojairep 
TO  Uaix<pv\(iou,  ixaXaKwnpov  Se  tikt^i,  t]  Se  TnixeArj  ola  eXaiov  aTr'  avroj 
AetjSeTat.  Tou0'  lepav  eaOrjra  iroiovvrai,  kui  et  rts  erepos  irapa  rovs  li'dovs 
TovTovs  ar'aantfi-q  avTo,  ov  (Xidurai  t)  yi}  rov  ipiov.  Pbilost.,  Apoll.  Yita, 
III,  XV,  p.  54. 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  195 

them ;  and  secondly :  for  the  monsters  he  so  carelessly 
attributes  to  Strabo — and  of  which  so  far  as  I  know 
Strabo  is  innocent — had  Hierocles  but  told  of  them  as 
of  something  of  which  he  had  heard,  these  ten-headed 
and  four-hand-and-footed  men  would  have  been  identi- 
fied with  the  statues  of  Ravana  and  Ardhavan/^  and 
adduced  as  an  evidence  of  a  visit  to  India.  As  it  is,  we 
know  him  as  an  untrustworthy  writer,  and  we  have  only 
his  own  word  for  it  that  he  was  ever  there. 

We  have  next  an  account  of  India^^  written  at  the 
close  of  the  fourth  or  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  and 
drawn  up  apparently  at  the  request  either  of  Palladius, 
or  of  Lausius  to  whom  Palladius  inscribed  his  Historia 
Lausiaca.  Its  writer  states  that  he  went  to  India  with 
Moses,  Bishop  of  Adule ;  but  found  the  heat  such,  the 
coldest  water  being  set  boiling  in  a  few  minutes,^^  that 

^  Vide  plates  54  and  24,  Moor's  Hindoo  Pantheon.  And  as 
belonging  to  the  popular  legends  we  hear  in  the  Mahabharata  of 
men  :  "  a  trois  yeux,  plusieurs  k  un  seul  oeil...les  monopedes,"  etc., 
II,  54,  Fouche's  Tr. 

^  Of  this  tract  there  are  two  versions,  a  Greek  addressed  to 
some  eminent  personage  not  named,  and  a  Latin  attributed  to 
Ambrosius  and  addressed  to  Palladius.  In  the  Greek  version  the 
author  himself  visits  India,  to  aKpcorrjpia  /xovov,  p.  2 ;  in  the  Latin: 
it  is  his  brother,  Musseus  Dolenorum  Episcopus,  who  traverses 
Serica,  now  on  this  side  the  Ganges,  p.  58,  where  are  the  trees 
that  give  out  not  leaves  but  very  fine  wool,  and  where  he  sees  the 
stone  columns  raised  to  Alexander ;  and  who  at  length  reaches 
Ariana,  which  he  finds  burnt  up  by  the  heat,  and  so  hot  that 
water  is  seen  boiling  in  the  vessels  that  hold  it,  and  who  then 
gives  up  his  journey  and  returns  to  Europe.  In  this  first  part  I 
have  preferred  the  Greek,  but  afterwards  I  oftener  follow  the  Latin 
version  as  the  more  full  and  intelligible. — Palladius,  ed.  Bissseus. 

^'  Ctesias  of  the  Indian  sea  :  ro  5e  avw  avrr)5.,.6€piiov  tivai  wo-re  fxri 


196  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

he  very  quickly  returned.  He  had  little  to  say  of  his 
own  knowledge ;  but  in  the  course  of  his  travels  he  had 
fallen  in  with,  and  heard  a  good  deal  about  India  from, 
a  scholar  of  the  Thebaid,  a  lawyer,  who  disgusted  with 
his  profession  had  thrown  it  up  and  set  out  to  see  the 
world  and  more  especially  the  land  of  the  Brahmans. 
This  man  recounted,  that  in  the  company  of  a  priest  he 
took  ship  in  the  Eed  Sea  for  the  Bay  of  Adule.  Here  he 
landed  and  went  to  visit  the  city  and  pushed  on  inland 
as  far  as  Auxume,^^  where  he  met  with  some  Indian, 
i.e.  Arab,  merchants   about  to  proceed  for  India :  he 

iX'^vv  ^rjvai.  Photius  Bib.,  p.  144.  Strabo,  of  the  heat  in  India 
says,  lizards  crossing  the  road  are  burnt  up,  and  water  quickly 
warms,  p.  730.  This  however  may  have  been  an  extravagant 
mode  of  speech  merely,  for  Sidonius,  almost  a  cotemporai-y  of 
Palladius,  when  urging  bis  friend  Donatius  to  leave  the  city,  says, 
"jam  non  solum  calet  unda  sed  coquitur."     Epist.  II,  2. 

^8  I  here  follow  neither  the  Greek  nor  Latin  version.  The 
Greek  :  diairXevaas  ncra  Trpco-jSurepou  touttjk  OaXacaav  KareAa/Se  irpuTov 
A5ov\iv  fira  rr]v  Av^ov/j.7]v  ev  rj  t]v  fia<Ti\iaKos  twv  IvZuv,  vii,  Pseudo- 
Callisthenes,  Miiller,  p.  102,  and  afterwards  Atto  ttjs  Au|oi;^irjs  ivpwv 
Tivas  vhoiapKf  Sta^aivovras  Ivbovs  e/xxopias  X«/'**'>  freipaQrjv  evSuTcpov 
aireKesiv,  viii,  p.  103.  The  Latin :  "  In  rubrio  mari  navem  con- 
scendens  navigavit  primo  sinum  Adulicum  et  Adulitarum  oppidum 
vidit,  mox  Aromata  promontorium  et  Troglodytarum  emporium 
penetravit;  hinc  et  Auxumitarum  loca  attigit,  unde  solvens... 
Muzirim  pervenit,  ih.,  103.  The  Greek  version  is  evidently  de- 
fective, for  it  never  brings  our  scholar  to  India  at  all,  while  the 
Latin  traces  out  an  itinerary  confused  and  improbable.  For  after 
leaving  Adule,  our  traveller  makes  for  Aromata,  the  most  eastern 
point  of  Africa,  and  the  emporium  of  the  Troglodytes ; — but  "  Adu- 
liton... maximum  hie  emporium  Troglodytarum  etiam  Ethiopum ; " 
(Plin.,  iv,  34) — or  suppose  it  some  port  in  the  Adulitic  Bay,  still 
he  is  always  retracing  his  steps  till  he  comes  to  Auxume,  an 
inland  town  {^lea-TTjKcvat  rrjv  A5ov\iv  ttjs  Av^ovfiecos  irevreKaideKa 
Tinepwu  65o$.  Nonnosus,  p.  480,  Hist.  Bizant.),  whence  he  sets 
sail  for  India. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  197 

joined  tliem,  and  together  they  crossed  the  Ocean.  After 
several  days'  voyage  they  reached  Mnziris,  the  chief 
port  on  this  side  the  Ganges  and  the  residence  of  a 
petty  Indian  rajah.  At  Muziris  our  traveller  stayed 
some  time,  and  occupied  himself  in  studying  the  soil 
and  climate  of  the  place  and  the  customs  and  manners 
of  its  inhabitants.  He  also  made  inquiries  about  Ceylon 
and  the  best  mode  of  getting  there ;  but  did  not  care  to 
undertake  the  voyage  when  he  heard  of  the  dangers  of 
the  Sinhalese  Channel,  of  the  thousand  isles,  the 
Maniolai,  which  impede  its  navigation,  and  the  load- 
stone rocks^^  which  bring  disaster  and  wreck  on  all 
iron-bound  ships.  They  told  him,  however,  of  this 
island,  of  its  happy  climate^^  and  its  long-lived  inhabit- 
ants, of  its  four  satrapies  and  its  great  king,  king  of  all 
the  Indias,^^  of  whom  the  petty  sovereigns  of  the  coast 
were  but  the  governors.  He  knew  too  of  its  great 
trade,  of  its  markets  thronged  with  merchants  from 

59  Ptolemy  knows  of  the  Maniolai  and  the  loadstone  rocks,  but 
limits  their  number  to  ten,  and  throws  them  forward  some  degrees 
east  of  Ceylon,  vii,  p.  221 ;  and  before  Ceylon  places  a  group 
of  1378  small  islands,  vii,  4,  p.  213.  And  Masoudi,  who  had  tra- 
versed this  sea,  says  that  ships  sailing  on  it  were  not  fastened 
with  iron  nails,  its  waters  so  wasted  them,  p.  374. 

^  So  Fa-hian :  "  Ce  pays  est  tempere,  on  n'y  connait  pas  la 
difference  de  I'hiver  et  de  I'ete.  Les  herbes  et  les  arbres  sont 
toujours  verdoyants.  L*ensemencement  des  champs  est  suivant  la 
volonte  des  gens."     Tr.  de  Remusat,  c.  xxxviii.,  p.  332. 

<5^  Eu  ravrri  Se  r-p  vrjarcp  Kai  6  /xfyas  fiaaiKfvs  Karoixfi  twv  Iv^cdv,  <^ 
iro»'T€S  01  ^aaiXiKoi  tijs  x^P**'  fKfiurjS  vvoKfivrai  ws  carpanai,  de  Bra- 
manibus,  p.  3.  "  Huic  quatuor  moderantur  ...  satrapes,  inter 
quos  unus  est  maximus  cui...C8eteri  obediunt." — Latin  version. 
These  satrapies  would  be  those  of  Jafna,  Malaya,  Kohuna,  with 
that  of  Anarajapura  as  the.  chief. 


198  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

Ethiopia,  Persia,  and  Auxume  (Latin  version  only) ;  of 
its  five  great  navigable  rivers,^^  and  perpetual  fruit- 
bearing  trees,  palms,  cocoa,  and  snialler  aromatic  nuts. 
And  he  had  heard  how  its  sheep  were  covered  not  with 
wool  but  hair,  gave  much  milk,  and  had  broad  tails ; 
and  how  their  skins  were  prettily  worked  up  into  stuffs, 
the  only  clothing  of  the  people,  who  would  on  feast-days 
eat  both  mutton  and  goat's  flesh,  though  their  usual  food 
was  milk,  rice,  and  fruit. 

And  the  scholar  further  said:  "I  tried  to  penetrate 
into  the  interior  of  their  country,  and  got  as  far  as  the 
Besadse,  a  people  with  large  heads  and  long  untrimmed 
hair,  dwarfish  and  feeble  but  active  and  good  climbers, 
who  occupy  themselves  with  gathering  the  pepper 
from  the  low  and  stunted  trees  on  which  it  grows. 
They  seized  on  me ;  and  their  king,  the  consumption  of 
whose  palace  was  one  measure  of  corn  a  year  (the  year 
in  the  Latin  version  only),  whence  got  I  know  not,  gave 
me  as  slave  to  a  baker.  With  him  I  stayed  six  years, 
and  in  this  time  learned  their  language  and  a  good  deal 
about  the  neighbouring  nations.  At  length  the  great 
king  of  Ceylon^  heard  of  me,  and  out  of  respect  for  the 

62  Ptolemy  likewise  gives  five  rivers  to  Ceylon,  ut  sup.  the 
Soana,  Ayanos,  Baraeos,  Ganges,  and  Phasis ;  and  after  Mm  Mar- 
cianus  Heracleensis,  Geog.  Minor.  Didot,  p.  534. 

63  This  tract  is  imperfect.  The  Greek  version  sends  our  tra- 
veller direct  from  Auxume  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  where  he  was 
not  likely  to  hear  anything  about  the  Brahmans;  the  Latin  on 
the  other  hand  after  saying  every  thing  to  dissuade  him  from  the 
voyage  to  Ceylon,  suddenly  and  without  a  hint  that  he  had  left 
Muziris  sets  him  down  in  the  midst  of  its  angry  and  excited  popu- 
lation. But  it  is  rarely  consistent  with  itself,  for  1st,  it  describes 
Ceylon  on  hearsay  as  an  island  of  the  blest,  "  in  qua  sunt  illi  quibus 


CLAUDIUS  TO   JUSTINIAN.  199 

Roman  name  and  fear  of  the  Eoman  power,  ordered  me 
to  be  set  free,  and  severely  punished  the  petty  rajah  who 
had  enslaved  me." 

Of  the  Brahmans  this  scholar  reported,  that  they  were 
not  a  society  like  our  monks  but  a  race,  born^  Brahmans. 
They  lived  he  said  near  the  Ganges  and  in  a  state  of 
nature.  They  went  naked^  wandering  in  the  woods, 
and  sleeping  on  leaves.  They  had  no  domestic  animals, 
tilled  no  land,  and  were  without  iron  or  house  or  fire  or 
bread  or  wine;  but  then  they  breathed  a  pleasant, 
healthful  air,  wonderfully  clear.  They  worshipped  God, 
and  had  no  slight,  though  not  a  thorough,  knowledge  of 
the  ways  of  Providence.     They  prayed  always  turning. 


Beatorum  nomen  est,"  and  seems  to  countenance  that  description, 
and  yet  the  people  our  scholar  fell  among  he  found  a  weak, 
hideous,  and  inhospitable  race.  2nd.  It  speaks  of  pepper  as  the 
chief  produce  of  the  island:  "piper  ibi  nascitur  in  magnaque  col- 
ligitur  copia ; "  but  though  pepper  certainly  grows  in  Ceylon,  it 
is  not  and  never  has  been  among  its  staple  productions  (Ptolemy, 
viii,  p.  212),  nor  to  gather  it  the  occupation  of  its  people.  But 
from  their  name  and  description.  Sir  E.  Tennent  (Ceylon)  has  iden- 
tified the  Besadee  with  the  Sinhalese  Veddahs.  Let  me  observe 
that  the  name  is  unknown  to  the  Latin  version  and  belongs  to  the 
Greek,  which  expressly  states  that  our  scholar  never  went  to 
Oeylon  :  ov  yap  dedvvrfrat  ovS*  avros  ets  ttjj/  v-qaov  eiaeAdnv,  lib.  Ill, 
vii,  ib.,  and  appears  there  in  several  shapes  as  Thebaids,  Bethsiads, 
and  Bethsads.  2ndly,  that  the  Besadse  are  in  Ptolemy  a  people 
living  in  the  extreme  north  of  India.  3rdly,  that  the  Besadae, 
except  in  those  great  features  common  to  the  ill-fed  barbarous 
races,  bear  no  resemblance  to  any  Sinhalese  people.  For  though 
like  the  Veddahs  they  are  puny,  ill-shaped,  live  in  caves  and 
recognize  a  domestic  chief,  the  Veddahs  unlike  them  have  no 
king  living  in  a  palace,  no  political  existence,  and  no  arts  such  as 
the  existence  of  a  baker  implies, 
fi*  Vide  from  Bardesanes,  swjpra,  pp.  152-3. 


200  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

but  not  superstitiously,  to  the  East.  They  ate  whatever 
came  to  hand,  nnts  and  wild  herbs,  and  drank  water. 
Their  wives,  located  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ganges, 
they  visited  during  July  and  August,^^  their  coldest 
months,  and  remained  with  them  forty  days.^^  But  as 
soon  as  the  wife  had  borne  her  husband  two  children,  or 
after  five  years  if  she  were  barren,  the  Brahman  ceased 
to  have  intercourse  with  her.^^ 

The   Ganges   is   infested  by  the   Odonto,  a  fearful 
monster,  but  which  disappears   during  the   Brahman 


65  "In  India... December,  Jannary,  and  February  are  their 
warmest  months ;  our  summer  being  their  winter ;  July  and 
August  are  their  winter." — Masoudi's  Meadows  of  Gold,  p.  344, 
Though  Masoudi  confirms  the  statement  of  our  traveller,  in  fact, 
the  summer  in  India  corresponds  with  our  summer. 

66  Among  the  Buddhists  :  "  Quand  venait  la  saison  des  pluies 
...les  Religieux  pouvaient  cesser  la  vie  vagabonde  des  mendiants. 
II  leur  etait  permis  de  se  retirer  dans  des  demeures  fixes.  Cela 
s'appelait  sejourner  pendant  la  Varcha:  c'est-a-dire,  pendant  les 
quatre  mois  que  dure  la  saison  pluvieuse."  Burnouf,  Hist,  du 
Bond.,  p.  285.  The  rainy  season,  however,  is  not  the  same  on  the 
East  and  West  of  the  Ghauts.  See  too  in  the  Mahabharata,  the 
observance  of  times  and  seasons  in  the  relations  between  the 
Brahmans  and  the  widows  of  the  Kshatryas  exterminated  by  them. 
I,  p.  268,  Fouche's  tr. 

67  Suidas,  s.  v.  Bpoxiuaves,  has,  with  a  slight  alteration,  copied  this 
account  of  the  Brahmans.  He  says  "  they  are  a  most  pious  people 
(c0i/os),  without  possessions  and  living  in  an  island  of  the  ocean 
given  them  by  God;  that  Alexander  came  there  and  erected  a 
pillar  (the  bronze  pillar  of  Philostratus,  As.  Jour.,  xviii,  p.  83) 
with  the  inscription  *  I,  the  great  king  Alexander  came  thus  far ;  * 
that  the  Makrobioi  live  here  to  150,  the  air  is  so  pure... The  men 
thus  dwell  in  the  parts  adjoining  the  ocean,  but  the  women  be- 
yond the  Ganges,  to  whom  they  pass  over  in  the  months  of 
July,  etc.''  The  island  of  the  Indian  Makrobioi  is  probably  bor- 
rowed from  the  Atlantic  Erythia,  where  dwelt  the  Ethiopian 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  201 

pairing  months,  and  by  serpents  seventy  cubits  long. 
The  ants  are  in  these  parts  a  palm,  and  the  scorpions  a 
cubit  in  length ;  and  hence  the  difficulty  of  getting 
there.  The  tract  then  concludes  with  a  series  of  letters, 
which  purport  to  have  passed  between  Dandamis,  the 
chief  of  the  Brahmans,  and  Alexander  the  Great,  and 
which  might  have  been  written  anywhere  and  by  any- 
body, except  one  who  had  learned  to  think  or  was  accus- 
tomed to  command.^ 

Our  author's  account  of  his  own  experience  of  India, 
its  great  heat,  is  so  absurdly  impossible,  that  we  lose 
all  faith  in  his  veracity.  I  believe  neither  in  his  own 
story,  nor  in  that  of  his  travelled  lawyer  who  seems  to 
me  introduced  merely  to  give  reality  and  interest  to 
the  narrative.  In  the  narrative  itself  we  first  hear  of 
the  loadstone  rocks  attached  to  the  Maniolai,  as  guard- 
ing the  coasts  of  Ceylon.     These  rocks,  which  the  voy- 

Makrobioi  according  to  Eustatius.  Com.  in  Dion.  Per.,  §  558, 
p.  325,  II,  Geog.  Min. 

Hrot  fjLcu  paiovai  $ooTpo(t>ov  ajx<p*  Epvdeiap 

ArXavros  ircpi  x*''A"*  BcovSefS  AiQioirr]€S, 

MaKpo^iuv  i/tTjes  afivfioves,  oi  irod'  Ikovto 

Trjpvuvos  fjL€Ta  iror/jLov  ayr)vopos.  Diony.  Perieget.,  558,  etc.,  ih. 
^  Of  cotemporaries  of  Palladius,  who  in  their  works  have  noticed 
India,  I  pass  over  Marcianua  Heracleensis  (a.d.  401),  who  as  a 
geographer  had  necessarily  much  to  say  about  it,  but  who  as  the 
mere  copyist  of  Ptolemy  principally,  and  occasionally  of  other 
writers  (Geog.  Graec.  Min.  Pf.,  p.  133,  I,  ed.  Didot,  conf.  Lassen, 
u.  8.,  288,  III),  added  nothing  to  the  existing  knowledge  of  India : 
and  Justin,  Hist.  Philip.  (Smith's  Biog.  Diet.,  s.  v.,  and  ^tat. 
Justini  and  Testamenta,  Valpy's  Delphin  ed.),  to  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  much  of  the  little  we  know  of  the  Greek  rule  in 
Bactria  and  India,  but  whose  history  as  an  epitome  of  that  of 
Trogus  Pompeius  belongs  really  to  the  Augustan  age. 


202  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

ages  of  Sinbad  have  since  made  so  famous,  probably- 
owed  their  origin  to  some  Arab  merchant,  some  Scythi- 
anus,  who  while  he  amused  the  imaginations  of  his 
wondering  customers,  at  the  same  time  fenced  round 
with  terror  the  trading  grounds  whence  he  obtained  his 
most  precious  wares.  Here  too  we  read  of  a  Sinhalese 
Empire  with  dominions  extending  far  into  the  interior 
of  India,  and  here  only ;  for  the  Sinhalese  annals  show 
us  Ceylon  ever  open  to  Tamil  inroads,  sometimes  sub- 
dued or  at  best  struggling  for  independence,  and  at  other 
times  prosperous  and  powerful,  but  never  even  then 
claiming  rule  over  any  part  of  India.^^  And  here  also 
we  have  an  account  of  the  Brahman  marriage,  which, 
though  in  one  particular,  divorce  for  barrenness,  not  alto- 
gether incorrect,  is  as  a  whole  quite  opposed  as  well  to 
all  we  know  of  Brahman  habits  as  to  that  ideal  of 
Brahman  life  on  which  the  Laws  of  Menu  so  willingly 
dweU/o 

69  This  tract  was  written  about  a.d.  400.  If  the  scholar  ever 
existed,  he  must  have  travelled  and  obtained  his  knowledge  of 
Ceylon  some  time  in  the  last  half  of  the  fourth  century,  during 
the  reigns  of  either  Buddha  Da'sa,  from  a.d.  339  to  368,  or  of 
Upatissa  II,  a.d.  308-410.  From  the  Mahawauso,  pp.  237-9,  and 
the  Eajavali,  pp.  241-2,  we  gather,  that  Ceylon  was  at  this  time  in 
a  flourishing  condition ;  but  we  find  nothing  which  can  lead  us  to 
suppose  that  its  kings  held  dominion  in  India.  Fa-hian  also  was 
in  Ceylon  about  a.d.  410,  and  his  description  of  the  island  quite 
Corroborates  the  statements  of  its  Sacred  Books.  Foe-koue-ki, 
xxxviii,  9.  Upham's  Sacred  Books  of  Ceylon,  1,  c,  and  Tumour's 
Appendix  to  the  Mahawanso,  p.  72. 

70  For  the  marriage  duties  and  the  respect  due  to  women,  v. 
Menu  III,  45-8  and  55-62.  For  the  marriage  duties  of  women, 
ih.  153,  160,  and  ix,  74.  The  ideal  of  marriage  :  "  Then  only  is  a 
man  perfect  when  he  consists  of  three  persons  united,  his  wife. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  203 

About  tliis  same  time  (a.d.  360-420)  appeared  the 
Dionysiacs,  a  poem  in  forty-eight  books,  written  by 
Nonnos  of  Panoplis  in  Egypt,  to  celebrate  the  triumphs 
of  Bacchus  and  his  conquest  of  India.  The  first  eight 
books  tell  of  Cadmus,  and  the  loves  of  Jupiter,  and  the 
jealousy  of  Juno.  The  ninth,  tenth,  eleventh,  and  twelfth 
recount  the  birth  and  education  of  Bacchus,  and  his 
love  for,  and  grief  at  the  death  of,  the  youthful  satyr 
Ampelos  /^  and  how  Ampelos  was  then  changed  into  a 
vine,  and  how  of  the  grapes  Bacchus  made  wine  and 
drank  it,  and  threw  off  his  old  sorrow  .'''^  In  the 
thirteenth  book  Iris^^  from  Jove  calls  on  Bacchus  to 
drive  the  arrogant  and  lawless  Indians  from  Asia,  and 
by  great  deeds  and  labours  to  gain  a  place  in  Olympus. 
It  tlien  enumerates  the  Centaurs,  Satyrs,  Cyclops,  and 
peoples  which  gather  round  the  Bacchic  standard.  In 
the    fourteenth    and    fifteenth    books    Bacchus  is  in 


himself,  and  his  son,  and  thus  learned  Brahmans  have  announced 
this  maxim — The  husband  is  even  one  person  with  his  wife,"  ib. 
45.  Consequent  upon  this  "  A  barren  wife  may  be  superseded  by 
another  in  the  ninth  year,  she  whose  children  are  all  dead  in 
the  tenth,  she  who  brings  forth  only  daughters  in  the  eleventh," 
ih.  81. 

7^         Ow5€  c  KaWos  eXcnre,  Kai  ei  Oavev  a)s  Sarupos  Se 
KiiTO  ViKus,  yeKooovTi  rravfiKfXos,  otanep  aiei 
XfiXf(^iv  atpQoyyoKJi  xtutv  fieAiTjbvv  aoLSrjv.     xi,  250. 
7'  ...nporepas  8'  eppiipe  juept^voy 

(papfiaKov  7]$riTTjpos  exfv  cuoS/iov  oira/pijv.     290,  xii. 
73  He  sends  Iris  to  bid  him — 

o<ppa  SiKTis  aSiSuKTov  vvepcjyiaKuf  yevos  IfSwi' 
AtJiSos  e^€\a(Tfi(v.     5,  xiii. 
Bat  unlike  the  Iris  of  Homer,  who  always  strictly  delivers  her 
message,  she  somewhat  varies  it,  and  bids  him — 

fViJtfiirjs  aSiSaKToi/  aXarTuaai  yevos  IfSuv, 


204  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

Bithynia  near  the  lake  Astracis/*  and  he  then  and  there 
changes  its  waters  into  wine,  encounters  and  makes 
drunk  and  captive  an  Indian  army  under  Astrais 
{aarrip) ;  and  afterwards  (seventeenth  book)  marches 
into  Syria  and  defeats  another  and  more  powerful  one 
commanded  by  the  son-in-law  of  the  Indian  king 
Deriades/^  Orontes,^^  who  in  despair  kills  himself  and 

7^  6  irept  NiKouaSeiav  koXttos  Aaraxvos  KaKeirai.  Strabo,  xii,  43. 
Nonnos,  ed.  de  Marcellus,  N.  N.,  100,  xiv,  7,  xiv. 

'5  Ariptadv^,  from  Srjpts,  strife,  says  Nonnos.  The  name  is  pro- 
bably borrowed  from  the  Bassarics  of  Dionysius,  for  Eustatius  in 
his  Comm.  on  the  Periegesis  (606  v,  p.  332,  II,  Geog.  Grse.  Min.) 
observes  that  the  Erythraean  king  was  Deriades,  an  Erythraean  rqp 
yeuei,  but  who  went  to  India  and  bravely  opposed  Bacchus.  And 
then  if  Dionysius,  as  MiiUer  is  inclined  to  think,  lived  in  the  first 
century,  it  may  possibly  be  either  a  translation  or  adaptation  of 
the  Sanskrit  Duryodhana,  from  "  dur,"  bad,  and  "  yodna,"  strife, 
as  Professor  Wilson  in  a  paper  on  the  Dionysiacs  of  Nonnos,  As. 
Ees.,  xvii,  suggests,  and  may  have  become  known  in  Greece 
through  the  Greeks  who  had  visited  India  or  the  Hindus  who 
visited  Alexandria.  Or  as  Duryodhana  is  the  oldest  of  the 
Kaurava  princes  and  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Mahabharata,  his 
name  and  some  notion  of  the  Epic  may  (spite  of  Strabo's  hint  to 
the  contrary,  L.  xv,  3)  have  been  transmitted  to  Greece  by  the 
Bactrian  Greeks,  whose  relations  with  India  were  many  and  inti- 
mate. But  in  this  case  it  is  surely  somewhat  strange  that  of  all 
this  poem  only  one  name,  and  that  scarcely  recognisable,  and  not 
the  greatest  nor  the  easiest  fitted  to  Grecian  lips,  has  found  a  place 
in  Grecian  literature. 

76  Orontes,  Greek  form  of  the  Persian  Arvanda  from  "  arvat," 
flowing,  Lassen,  III,  147,  or  of  the  Egyptian  Anrata,  Eouge,  tr. 
of  a  poem  on  the  exploits  of  Rameses  by  Pentaour.  Of  this  river 
both  Wilson,  u.  s.,  p.  610,  and  Lassen  observe  that  in  the  belief  of 
Syria  confirmed  by  the  oracle  of  Klaros,  it  took  its  name  from  an 
Indian  chief  who  died  there,  and  whose  coffin  and  bones  indicating 
a  height  of  eleven  cubits  were  found  when  the  Romans  diverted 
or  canalised  the  river,  Pausanias,  viii,  2,  3,  and  see  Strabo,  xvi, 
II,  7,  p.  639. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  205 

gives  his  name  to  the  neighbouring  river,  ever  since  called 
the  Orontes.     After  this  battle  Blemmys,  king  of  the 
Erythraean  ladians  but  subject  to  Deriades,  submits  to 
Bacchus  and  settles  with  his  people  in  Ethiopia/^    The 
eighteenth   book    shows   us   Staphylos,  the  Assyrian 
monarch,  with  Methe  and  Botrus,  his  wife  and  son, 
doing  honour  to  and  feasting  Bacchus  in  their  palace, 
whence  after  a  drunken  bout  Bacchus  goes  on  his  way 
Indiaward,  and  at  the  same  time  despatches  a  herald  to 
Deriades,  and  threatens  war  unless  his  gifts  and  orgies 
be  accepted.     The  nineteenth  book  relates  the  death  of 
Staphylos  and  the  games  held  in  his  honour.     In  the 
twentieth,  Bacchus  reaches  Arabia,  but  in  the  forest  of 
Nyssa,  while  all  unguarded  and  defenceless,  is  set  upon 
by  Lycurgus,  and  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  the  Ked 
Sea.     The  twenty-first  book  tells  of  his  ambassador's 
reception  at  the  Indian  court,  and  of  the  scorn  with 
which  Deriades  rejects  the  proffered  gift  of  Bacchus. 
"  He  cares  for  no  son  of  Jove,"  he  says,  "  his  sword  and 
his  buckler  are  his  wine  and  drink,  and  his  gods  earth 
and  water."^^    Bacchus  learns  this  answer  while  frolick- 
ing with  the  mountain  nymphs."^^    He  prepares  for  war, 

'^  Eustatius,  u.  s,,  on  the  authority  either  of  Nonnos  or  the  Bas- 
sarics,  gives  them  the  same  origin  :  BK^nixv^s  oOroo  Kahovfievoi  avo 
BK^nfivos  rivos,  6s  vnoaTparriywu  Tcp  jSatrtAei  ATjpia^ji  Kara  Aiovvaov 
(TVV€iro^(ix€(Tc.     (Com.  v.  220.  p.  255,  ib.) 

78  ....         AripiadrjS  yap 

ov  fiaOev  ovpavicov  fxaKapuv  xopov,  ovZe  ytpaipu 
YiiXiov  Kai  Zr}va. 

VIVOS  ffios  vt\tv  tyxos'  6  8'  av  ttotos  ecrri  fioftrj.     256. 

fiovuoi  6U6  yeyaaa-i  deoi  kui  Taia  Kai  "tSwp,     261,  xxi. 

79  ...  opeiaai  fxiyvvro  Nvixcpais,     277,  xxi. 


206  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

and  calls  on  the  Arab  Ehadamanes  to  equip  a  fleet  and 
attack  the  Indians  by  sea.  He  himself  with  his  army 
passes  over  the  Caucasus.^*^  In  the  twenty-second  book 
"we  have  the  first  battle  on  Indian  ground.  Kear  the 
Hydaspes  in  a  thick  forest  the  Indian  forces  under 
Thoreus  lie  in  ambush  but  are  betrayed  to  Bacchus,  who 
by  a  pretended  flight  draws  them  out  into  the  open  and 
completely  routs  them,  and  then  crosses  the  river  to 
combat  with  Deriades.  Deriades  by  the  advice  of 
Thoreus  retreats  on  his  elephants  within  the  city  walls. 
Attis  on  the  part  of  Ehea  presents  Bacchus  with  arms 
forged  by  Vulcan,  and  foretells  that  not  till  the  seventh 
year  shall  he  destroy  the  Indian  capital. ^^  In  the  mean- 
while Deriades  at  the  treacherous  instigation  of  Minerva 
marshals  his  hosts  ;  and  the  twenty-sixth  book  gives  the 
names  of  the  cities,  islands,  and  peoples,  with  their  chiefs, 
which  form  his  army.  And  on  the  contents  of  this  book 
as  specially  occupied  with  India  we  shall  dweU  at  some 
length.  At  the  summons  of  Deriades  came  Agraios 
{ay pa,  the  chase)  and  Phlegios  {(pXeyo),  to  burn)  the  two 
sons  of  Eulseus  (river,  Ulai  ?  Marcellus)  and  with  them 
those  who  dwell  in  Kusa^^  and  Bagia,  near  the  broad 

80  The  passage  scarce  occupies  three  lines — 

Ktti  Taxws  r)\a(Te  5i(ppou  Ecciov  eis  KXifxa  yairis 

afjKpi  5e  Trerprji' 
KavKaaiTjv  Ko^oivra  Biaoreixof  Kcvoova  .     ,     . 
UcDTjs  irapafieifie  ve^av.     307,  xxi. 

81  ov  yap  itpiv  iro\€fMov  reXos  ecraeTat,  €i<TOKe  ;^ap/xr}j 
fKTOv  apairXifjauiaiu  €tos  rerpa^tryes  'Q,pai. 

€j35ojuaTq>  XvKa^avTi  diappaiffeis  iroXiv  luSoav.     363-7,  XXV. 

82  Those  who  would  identify  the  different  places,  in  the  text  I 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  207 

muddy  waters  of  the  Indian  Zorambos ;  the  people,  too, 
of  the  well-turreted  Ehodoe,  the  craggy  Propanisos,  and 
the  isle  Gerion,^  where  not  the  mothers,  but  tlie  fathers, 
suckle  their  children.  There,  too,  were  found  the  in- 
habitants of  the  lofty  Sesindos  and  of  Gazos^*  girt  about 
with  impregnable  linen-woven  bulwarks.  Near  them 
were  ranged  the  brave  Dardae^^  and  the  Prasian  force 
with  the  gold-covered  tribes  of  the  Sarangi,^^  who  live 
on  vegetables  and  grind  them  down  instead  of  corn. 
Then  came  the  curly-haired  Zabians  with  their  wise 
ruler  Stassanor ;  then  Morrheus^^  and  Didnasos  eager  to 
avenge  the  death  of  his  son  Orontes.  Now  followed  the 
many-languaged  Indians  from  well-built  sunny  ^thra. 


refer  to  M.  de  Marcellus'  notes  to  the  twenty-sixth  book  of  his  edi- 
tion of  Nonnos.  They  will  at  the  same  time  see  how  he  has  ac- 
commodated, and  I  think  not  unfairly,  the  names  to  the  Geogra- 
phies of  Ptolemy,  etc. 

^  r-npeiav,  PoSorjj'  re  Kai  ot  Xtvoreixea  Ta^ov.  Stephan,  Byzant., 
s.  v.,  Ta^os  from  the  third  book  of  the  Bassarics  of  Dionysius. 

84  This  description  of  Gazos  is  borrowed  from  the  BacraaptKa  of 
Dionysius  (n.  12,  xxvi,  B.  de  Marcellus),  and  from  the  same  source 
he  probably  took  his  account  of  Gereion  and  the  Sarangii,  for 
Nonnos  is  of  those  poets  who  repeat  but  do  not  invent.  Stephanos 
Byzantinus  by  the  way  frequently  quotes  the  Bassarics  of  Dionysius 
as  a  historical  authority,  e.  g.,  s.  v.  BAf/uues  and  Fa^os. 

^  AapSa*  IvBiKov  fOuos  viro  Arjoiadrj  noAffirjarav  Aiovva^  as  Aiovvaios 
fv  76  BaaaapiKwv,  Steph.,  s.  v.  AapSay. 

86  2apa77ai  5e  ct/tiara  /uev  ^ffia/xfieva  eveirpeirov  ex^"*^^^*  Herod., 
vii,  c.  67. 

^  Lassen,  u.  s.,  derives  Morrheus  from  fioppea,  the  material  of 
the  vasa  murrhina.  Prof.  W.  H.  Wilson,  ih.,  suggests  Maha- 
rajah. Neither  derivation  seems  to  me  satisfactory, — the  first 
strange  and  far-fetched,  the  second  scarcely  applicable,  for  Mor- 
rheus is  no  rajah,  a  soldier  of  fortune  merely,  though  of  high  birth, 
an  autocthon  :  ijAtjSaTow  Tv<pwyos  exav  avrox^ova  (pv\r\v,     177,  xxxiv. 


208  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

and  they  who  hold  the  jungles  (Xacncova)  of  Asene  and  the 
reedy  Andonides,  the  burning  Nicsea,  the  calm  Malana, 
and  the  water-girt  plains  of  Patalene.  Next  them 
marched  the  serried  ranks  {irvKwaC)  of  the  Dosareans 
and  the  hairy-breasted  Sabaroi,  and  Phringos,  Aspetos, 
Tanyclos,  Hippouros,  and  Egretios,  then  the  Ouatecetoi,^ 
who  sleep  lying  on  their  long  ears,  led  on  by  their  chiefs. 
Tectaphus  also  was  there  at  the  head  of  his  Bolingians,^^ 
Tectaphus,  whom  when  in  prison  his  daughter  suckled 
and  saved  from  death.  From  the  earth's  extremity 
Giglon,  Thoureus,  and  Hippalmas  brought  up  the 
Arachotes  and  the  Drangiai,  who  cover  with  dust^ 
those  whom  the  sword  has  slain.  Habraatos  com- 
manded the  archers,  shamed  by  the  loss  of  his  hair 
cut  off  by  order  of  Deriades,  and  a  disgrace  among 
the  Indians ;  he  came  on  slowly  and  perforce  with  hate 
in  his  heart.  He  ruled  the  savage  Scyths,  the  brave 
Ariainoi,  the  Zoaroi,  the  Arenoi,  the  Caspeiri,^^  the 
Arbians  of  the  Hysparos,  and  the  Arsanians  whose 
women  are  wondrously  skilled  in  weaving.  Near  them 
were  ranged  the  Cirradioi  used  to  naval  warfare,  but  in 

88  So  Scylax.    Tzetzes  Chil.,  vii.  Hist.,  144,  1.  635. 

89  Kat  Tore  Ba)\i777jcrt  /xer'  avlpaai  Tckto^os  upro. — Bassar.,  Dio- 
nys.,  Stephanos  Byz.,  s.  v.  'RtttKiyya.. 

90  "The  Dandis  and  Dasnamis  Sectaries  of  Siva... put  their 
dead  into  coffins  and  bury  them,  or  commit  them  to  some  sacred 
stream." — H.  H.  Wilson,  Eeligious  Sects  of  the  Hindus,  As.  Ees., 
xvii,  176,  and  in  a  note :  "  In  the  south  the  ascetic  followers  of 
Siva  and  Vishnu  bury  their  dead  (Dubois),  so  do  the  Vaishnava 
(Varangis  ? ),  and  Sanyasis  in  the  north  of  India"  (see  Ward),  all 
the  castes  in  the  south  that  wear  the  Lingam — ih. 

91  iv  Se  re  Kaaimpoi.  iroai  icAetTot,  ev  5'  Apir}voi,  Stephanos,  S.  V. 
KaairiipoSf  from  the  Bassar.  Dionys. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN,  209 

boats  of  skins  ;  their  chiefs  were  Thyamis  and  Olkaros, 
sons  of  Tharseros  the  rower.  Under  Phylites,  son  of 
Hipparios,  came  a  swarm  of  men  from  Arizanteia,  where 
a  certain  bushy  tree  from  its  green  leaves  distils  sweet 
honey,^^  while  from  its  branches  the  Horion^^  pours  forth 
a  song  like  the  swan's  for  melody,  and  the  yellow  purple- 
w^inged  Catreus  utters  its  shrill  cry,  prophetic  of  rain. 
Then  followed  the  Sibai,  the  people  of  Hydara,  and  the 
Carmanian  hosts,  with  their  leaders  Kolkaros  and 
Astrais,  the  sons  of  Logos.  The  three  hundred  isles  at 
the  mouths  of  the  Indus  sent  their  contingent  under 
Eipsasos,  a  giant  in  stature  (e%a)i/  tvhaXjjboa  Ttyavrcov, 
V.  248).  Aretos  too  with  his  five  sons  born  deaf  and 
dumb  obeyed  the  call  of  Deriades,  with  them  were 
ranged  the  shield-bearing  warriors  of  Pyle,  Kolalla  and 
Goryandos ;  while  under  Phylates  marched  those  who 
dwell  in  the  woody  Osthe,  mother  of  elephants,  and 
near  them  their  neighbours  from  Euthydimeia,  speaking 
another  tongue.  The  Derbicei,  the  Ethiopians,  the  Sac?e, 
the  Bactrians,  and  the  Blemyes,  also  joined  the  army  of 
Deriades. 

The  contest  then  begins.     The  Gods,  as  was  their 


^  Eari  56  Kai  SevSpo  Trap'  avrois  fxeXt  iroiovVTa  avev  ^coui/.  Strabo,  xv, 
I,  20,  Geog.  Min.  Grsec,  p.  620,  ii. 

93  Clitarchus,  quoted  by  Strabo,  speaking  of  the  movable  aviaries 
belonging  to  the  Indian  kings,  says  that  they  are  filled  with  large 
leaved  trees,  on  the  branches  of  which  are  perched  all  sorts  of  tame 
birds,  and  that  of  these  the  sweetest  songster  is  the  horion,  the 
most  beautiful  the  catreus  :  wv  evibwuoTaTov  fx€v...rov  wpiwva,  Ka/nirpo- 
rarov  Se  Kara  o^^v  Kai  irKeiarriv  exoi'Ta  iroiKiKiav  rov  Kurpea,  xv,  I,  p. 
690,  and  Fragmenta  Clitarchi,  18  and  18a,  Scriptores  Eev.  Alex., 
Didot's  ed. 


210  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

wont,  take  each  his  side.  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Vulcan,  and 
Minerva,  declare  for  the  Bassarids ;  Juno  with  Mars, 
Ceres,  and  I^eptune,  for  Deriades  and  his  Indians 
and  from  no  interested  motives,  for  throughout  De- 
riades stoutly  disavows  all  allegiance  to  them.  The 
fight  is  carried  on  with  various  fortune.  Now  the 
Indians  flee  before  Bacchus  and  his  crew  aided  by  the 
gods  ;  and  now,  headed  by  Mars,  Morrheus,  and  Deriades, 
or  Deriades'  wife  and  daughters,  and  befriended  by  the 
stratagems  of  Juno,^*  they  drive  him  from  the  field.  At 
length  night  intervenes  (xxxvii.),  and  Greeks  and 
Indians  bury  their  dead :  the  Greeks  with  funeral  piles 
and  games,  the  Indians  with  tearless  eyes,  for  for  them 
death  but  frees  the  soul  from  earthly  chains,  and  sends  it 
back  to  its  old  starting  point,  to  run  afresh  life's  circle 
of  change.^^ 

Six  years  have  now  passed  away,  and  Khea  has  long 
ago  announced  that  the  seventh  year  and  a  naval  battle 
shall  put  an  end  to  the  war.  The  Khadamanes  arrive 
with  their  ships.  Deriades  collects  his  fleet  and  goes 
forth  to  meet  them.^^    The  fight  is  long  and  doubtful, 

9*  Juno  drives  Bacchus  mad.  Eustatius  in  his  Commentary  on 
Dionysius,  v.  976,  alludes  to  this  madness,  probably  from  the  Bas- 
sarics  :  Mau'erat  Aiovvaos  'Hpas  trpopoK^.  Geog.  Min.,  II,  p.  386.  It 
is  also  mentioned  by  Pseudo  Plutarchus,  de  Fluv.  et  Mont.  Nom., 
Geog.  Min.  Grsec,  II,  p.  663. 

95  o/j-fxaaiv  aK\avToi(Tiv  erapxvffavTo  BavovraSf 

ola  fiiou  ^poreov  yairjia  Setr/ia  <pvyovTas, 
ylfvxvs  irefxrroixevrjs  ddev  7jA.u0e,  KVKXaSi  ffeipij 
vvaaav  es  apxo-'-f]^'  xxxvii,  3  V.  V. 

^  Morrheus,  xxxvi,  speaks  of  the  Ehadamanes  as  ship-builders : 
^Kxaiw  Vabafxavas,  on  SpuTO/mCf}  tivi  t^x^V 
vrias  fTtx^Vf^f'V'^o  (pxryoTtroX^fiif  Aiovvfftp,  414  v.  v. 

but  boasts  of  Indian  skill  on  the  sea :  ivSot 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  211 

till  at  length  the  Cabeirian  Eurymedon  sends  a  fire  ship 
into  the  midst  of  the  Indians,  and  a  general  conflagra- 
tion ensues.  Deriades  (xl  b.,  75)  escapes,  renews  the 
contest  on  land,  and  engages  in  a  single  combat  with 
Bacchus ;  but,  affrighted  by  the  presence  of  Minerva,^^ 
he  flies  towards  the  Hydaspes,  and,  struck  by  the  thyrsus 
of  his  adversary,  falls  and  dies  in  the  river.  The  city 
and  India  submit  to  the  conqueror ;  and  Bacchus  having 
raised  a  monument  to  those  of  his  troops  who  have 
perished  distributes  the  spoils  among  the  survivors,  and 
then  returns  to  Lydia.  The  remaining  eight  books  tell 
of  the  loves  and  wars  and  vengeance  of  Bacchus,  and 
the  poem  concludes  with  his  apotheosis.^^ 

Notwithstanding  the  probability  that  through  the 
Bactrian  Greeks  some  knowledge  of  the  Hindu  Epics 
may  have  reached  Greece  and  our  author,  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  they  were  wholly  unknown  to  him. 

I.  Because  his  poem  speaks  of  an  Indian  Empire  ex- 
tending to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  Bed 
Seas,  while  the  Indian  books  show  us  the  tide  of  Indian 


.     .     .     .     IvSoi  yap  eOrifjLOves  ^lart  kvBoi/iov 

ewaXiov,  Kai  fiaWuv  apiarivovai  BaKaaari 

■q  x^oi't  SrjpiooovTes,  465  V.V. 

AOrjvr} 
duifioi'i  fioTpvcvTi  Ttapiararo'  dfpKOfjLCPov  Se 
SeifjiaTi  Oeaireaicf  \vro  yovvara  AipiaSrioi.  xl,  74  V.V, 

Kai  deos  afnTi\o€is,  varpmov  aiOepa  fiaiPCDv, 

varpt  aw  evcoSivi  finjs  fxj/avae  TpaTref?]?, 

Kat  Pput€7}p  fJLira  SotTO,  /uera  TrpoTiprjv  x^'O'"'  oivov, 

ovpu'^iov  TTte  V€KTap  apuoTepoiari  KvireWois 

cvvBpovos  AnoWcoui,  auvtjrios  vU'i  Manjs.  xlviii. 


212  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

domination  rolling  ever  south  and  east,  and  if  west- 
ward,^^  never  passing  the  Indus. 

■  II.  Because,  though  the  names  of  the  Indian  cities 
and  peoples  in  the  Dionysiacs,  as  edited  by  the  Comte 
de  Marcellus,  pretty  fairly  correspond  with  those  given 
by  Ptolemy,  Pliny,  and  Strabo,  and  are  thus  accounted 
for,  the  names  of  its  Indian  chiefs  are  with  but  few 
exceptions,  as  Morrheus,  Orontes,  etc.,  purely  Greek. 

III.  Because  his  Indian  facts,  manners,  and  customs 
are  few,  and  are  : 

1st.  Such  as  were  long  before  his  time  well  known  to 
the  Eoman  world ;  as  when  he  tells  of  the  tearless  eyes 
with  which  the  Indians  bury  their  dead,  and  of  their 
belief  in  metempsychosis  ;  and  shows  them  worshipping 
earth,  water,  and  the  sun,  and  marshalling  their  elephants 
for  war,  and  calling  their  Brahmans  to  counsel,  or  em- 
ploying them  as  physicians.^ 

2ndly.  Such  as  were  not  so  well  known,  but  for  which 
authority  may  be  found  in  the  Indian  books ;  as  when 

^  But  compare  Gildemeister,  Scrip.  Arab,  de  Eebus  Indicia,  pp. 
2,  8,  9.  The  Mababharata  also  knows  of  world-conquerors  who 
necessarily  extend  their  dominion  westward;  thus  for  Yudd- 
histara,  his  brother  conquered  Kalamankas,  "  La  charmante  cite 
d'Akair  et  la  capitale  des  Yavanas/'  p.  457 ;  and  Nakaula  five 
kingdoms,  the  Civis,  Trigattas,  Ambashthas,  Milasas,  and  Kar- 
patas,  p.  439 ;  also  the  Varvaras,  Kivatas,  Yavanas,  Cakas,  440,  II, 
and  again  459,  v.  iv,  but  these  are  geographical  names  merely ; 
there  is  no  indication  of  any  permanent  occupation. 

1  And  the  Brahmans  heal  the  wound  with  magic  chaunt  just  as 
in  Homer ;  thus  when  Morrheus  is  wounded — 

'0({>pa  fiev  epdeov  e A/cos,  6  fxiv  Xax^,  ^aifxovn]  x^ip 

AvaiTTOvov  BpaxfJi-Wos  aKeaaaro  4>oij8a5t  rexvT), 

diCTTiaij)  fxayov  vfxvov  {nrorpv^ovros  aoidrj.  xxxix,  369. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  213 

Deriades  disgraces  Habraatos  by  depriving  him  of  his 
hair — thus  Yasichta  punishes  the  Sacas  by  cutting  off 
the  half  of  their  hair,  and  the  Yavanas  by  shaving  their 
heads  f  and  chooses  two  soldiers  of  fortune^  for  his 
sons-in-law — thus  their  fathers  give  Sita  and  Draupati,* 
the  one  to  the  strongest,  the  other  to  the  most  skilful, 
bowman ;  and  as  when  Morrheus  neglects  and  deserts 
his  wife,  daughter  of  Deriades,  for  a  Bacchante — thus 
the  Hindu  Theatre^  affords  more  than  one  example  of 
kings  and  Brahmans  in  love  with  women  other  than 
their  wives,  as  in  the  Toy-cart,  the  Necklace,  the  Statue,^ 
etc.  But  however  warranted  by  Indian  custom  these 
several  acts,  as  presented  by  Nonnos,  scarcely  associate 
themselves  with  Hindu  life,  certainly  not  more  than  the 
name  of  Deriades  with  that  of  Duryodhana,  though 
they  sufficiently  remind  us  of  the  Greeks  of  the  Lower 
Empire/ 

2  Harivansa,  I,  p.  68.  Langlois,  tr..  Or.  Tr.  Fund ;  and  Wilson, 
Hindu  Theatre,  332,  II. 

3  Of  Morrheus — 

vvfi(j)ios  uKTijiJicov,  op6T77  S'e/cTrjtTaro  vvfKprjv.      xxxiv,  163. 
And  when  Deriades  married  his  daughters,  all  gifts 
.     .     .     .     ayfXas  $€  jSoevc  Kat  rrtoea  ixr\\o»v 
Arjpia^fis  aireenre'  Kat  eypeixodoKTi  /iaxTjTOiS 
&vyaT€poi)v  e^ev^ev  aStopoSoKovs  ifxevaiovs.       ih.,  169,  170. 

*  With  a  certain  reserve  "  Un  roi  puissant  ne  doit  introduire 
dans  un  alliance  qu'un  mortel  de  la  plus  haute  renommee,"  says 
the  father  of  Draupadi.    Mahab.  II,  p.  167. 

6  Wilson's  Hindu  Theatre,  pp.  326  and  364,  II. 

*  See  the  several  plays  in  Wilson's  Hindu  Theatre,  and  some 
observations  of  Wilson's  on  the  plurality  of  wives  among  the 
Hindus,  II,  359. 

7  I  do  not  however  know  that  this  inappreciation  of  Indian  life 
is  an  evidence  of  Nonnos's  ignorance  of  the  Hindu  books,  only  of 


214  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

3rdly.  Such  as  are  unsupported  by  Hindu  authority. 
Thus  Deriades  shows  himself  skilled  in  the  niceties  of 
Greek  mythology,  and  his  wife  and  daughter  Bacchanal- 
like rush  to  the  battle  f  and,  as  if  India  were  deficient 
in  wonders,  the  fathers  in  Gereion  suckle  their  children, 
and  Gazos  is  impregnable  with  its  cotton  bulwarks. 

The  Topographia  Christiana  (a.d.  535)  next  claims 
our  attention.  Its  author,  Cosmas,  who  had  been  a 
merchant,  and  who  as  a  merchant  had  travelled  over 
the  greater  part  of  the  then  known  world,  betook  him- 
self in  his  latter  years  to  a  monastery,  and  there, 
though  weak  of  sight  and  ailing  in  body,  and  not  regu- 
larly educated,^  set  himself  in  this  work  to  prove,  that 
our  world  was  no  sphere,  but  a  solid  plane.^^  He  de- 
scribes it,  and  illustrates  this  and  indeed  all  his 
descriptions  by  drawings,^^  as  a  parallelogram  lying 
lengthways  east  and  west,  and  sloping  up  very  gradually 

his  want  of  imagination.  With,  some  play  of  fancy  and  the  faculty 
of  verse  Nonnos  is  essentially  without  the  poet's  power.  His  per- 
sonages are  all  conventional,  and  I  suspect  that  no  knowledge  of 
India,  not  even  had  he  trudged  through  it  on  foot,  would  have 
made  them  more  Indian,  more  real,  and  more  lifelike. 

8  In  the  Hanuman  Nataka,  nevertheless,  the  wife  of  Ravana,  to 
animate  his  drooping  courage,  offers 

*'  If  you  command,  by  your  side  I  march 
Fearless  to  fight,  for  I  too  am  a  Kshatrya." 

Hind.  Theat.,  II,  p.  371. 
®  aaOevwv  Tjucov  rvyxo-vovToev  rcfi  re  aoofxari,  rais  tc  o^pe<Ti...Trie^onevoov 
— aWws  T6    Kai  Trjs   i^codev   ejKVKAiov  iraibias  Kditofx^vav  Kai  py\ropiKri% 
Ttx^n^  ayLQipovvTuv,    Lib.  II,  p.  124.    Montfaucon,  Nova  Collectio 
Patrum,  vol.  ii. 

10  Vide  Prolog.,  II,  pp.  114-5. 

11  Vide  the  Plates  at  the  beginning  of  Montfaucon's  Nova  Col- 
lectio Patrum,  v.  ii,  PI.  1. 


CLAUDIUS   TO  JUSTINIAN.  215 

from  its  base,  but  more  gradually  on  its  south  and  west 
than  on  its  north  and  east  sides,  into  a  huge  conical 
mountain  round  which  sun  and  moon  run  their  courses, 
and  bring  with  them  day  and  night.^^  All  about  this 
gTeat  mass  of  earty^  he  places  an  impassable  ocean, 
communicating  with  it  by  four  gulfs,  the  Mediterranean, 
Arabic,  Persian,  and  Caspian  Seas,^*  but  eternally 
separating  it  from  a  trans-oceanic  land,  where  was  and  is 
Eden,  the  happy  birthplace  of  our  race,  and  whence  rise 
sheer  up  those  mighty  walls  which  arch  themselves  into 
the  firmament  above  us.  Written  with  such  a  theme, 
enforced  by  many  quotations  from  scripture  misunder- 
stood, and  the  authority  of  fathers  and  philosophers, 
worthless  on  this  point,  the  Topographia  Christiana  is 
but  dull  reading,  and  would  long  since  have  been  for- 
gotten had  it  not  here  and  there  been  lighted  up  by 
some  sketch  of  Cosmas's  own  travels,  some  notice  of 
what  liad  fallen  either  under  his  own  observation  or  that 
of  other  trustworthy  and  competent  witnesses,  and 
always  told  with  a  simplicity  and  guarded  truthfulness 
which  place  him  in  the  first  rank  of  those  who  know 
how  to  speak  of  what  they  have  seen,  and  repeat  what 
they  have  heard,  just  as  seen  and  heard,  without  ex- 
aggeration and  without  ornament. 

Cosmas  had  a  personal  knowledge  of  three  of  the  four 


^2  Vide  pp.  133-4  and  notes,  ih. 

"  The  length  he  computes  to  be  of  four  hundred  mansions  of 
thirty  miles  each,  its  breadth  of  about  two  hundred,  vide  p.  138. 

1^  Lib.  iv,  p.  188,  and  pp.  188-7,  and  p.  132  :  cim  Se  tv  ravT-p  rr/  yri 
fi<T^a\\ovT€t  €K  rov  nK(avov...Ko\irotrfcrcrafj€s\..ovToiyap  fiovoioi  KoKiroi 
■nheovTai'  ahvvajov  vvapx^vros  rov  CiKtavov  Tr\f(a6ai.     P.  132. 


216  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

inland  seas — the  Caspian^^  he  had  not  visited.  As  an 
occasional  resident  at  Alexandria  (p.  124),  he  knew  the 
Mediterranean  well.  He  had  sailed  down  the  Eed  Sea 
from  (Ela  and  Alexandria  to  Adule  ;^^  he  had  passed  the 
Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb,  and  had  been  within  sight  of, 
though  he  did  not  land  at,  the  Island  of  Socotora  ;^'^ 
and  thence,  if  he  ever  visited  India,  had  stretched  across 
the  main  to  Ceylon  and  the  Malabar  Coast,  or,  coasting 
and  trading  along  the  eastern  shores  of  Arabia,  had 
made  for  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  emporia  of  the  Indus. 
Once,  too,  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  was  on  the  very 
verge  of  the  great  ocean,  and  then  the  flocks  of  birds 
hovering  about,  the  thick  mists,  and  the  swell  of 
meeting   currents^^  warned   sailors  and  passengers  of 

15  ffXTopias  yap  X°P^^  firXevaa  rovs  rptis  koXvovs  toutouv,  rov  re  Kara 
tt]v  Vufxaviav  Kot  rou  Apafiiov  /cat  rov  HepaiKov  /cat  avo  ruv  oiKovvrmv  56 
7]  KM  irAeovruv  rovs  roirous  oKpijBws  fiTiixaQrjKws,  p.  132. 

^^  Adule  €vda  KOt  rrjv  e/jLiropiav  votovfxeOa  olov  avo  KKe^avZpeias  Kai  otto 
EAo  iixiropevofxfvoi,  p.  140. 

17  Dioscorides  rjv  vr)crov  irapeir^fvaaneu  ov  Kar7]\6ou  Se  €V  ourp,  p.  179. 
Masoudi  III,  p.  37,  speaks  of  Socotra  as  colonised  by  Greeks  much, 
as  Cosmas  does,  pp.  178-9;  but  Masoudi  by  Greeks  sent  by 
Alexander  himself,  Cosmas  by  Greeks  subjects  of  the  Ptolemies, 
his  successors.  But  when  the  Periplus  was  written  the  northern 
extremity  only  was  inhabited,  and  by  Indians,  Arabs,  and 
Ethiopians. 

18  Masoudi,  in  his  Meadows  of  Gold,  says  of  the  sea  of  Zanj,  "  I 
have  often  been  at  sea,  as  in  the  Chinese  Sea,  the  Caspian,  the 
Eed  Sea.  I  have  encountered  many  perils,  but  I  have  found  the 
sea  of  Zanj  the  most  dangerous  of  all,"  p.  263,  and  pp.  233-4! 
French  tr.  Soc.  Asiat.,  by  Barbier,  Eeinaud,  and  de  Courteille.  See 
also  from  Albyrouny,  by  Eeinaud,  Journal  Asiatique,  Sept. — Oct., 
1844,  pp.  237-8.  But  as  indicative  of  the  superior  experience  and 
enterprise  of  his  age,  compare  with  Cosmas  the  description  of  the 
same  sea  by  the  author  of  the  Periplus ;  he  points  out  its  dangers 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  217 

their  danger,  and  their  remonstrances  induced  the  pilot 
to  change  his  course.^^  On  the  continent  he  had  crossed 
the  Desert  of  Sinai  on  foot  f^  he  was  well  known  at 
Adule  f^  he  had  visited  Auxume  f^  and  indeed  had 
travelled  over  the  greater  part  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia 
and  the  countries  bordering  on  the  Arabian  Gulf;  and 
had  moreover  written  an  account  of  them  which  un- 
fortunately has  not  come  down  to  us.^^ 

at  certain  seasons  because  open  to  the  south  wind  ;  and  also  how 
the  danger  may  be  foreseen  by  the  turbid  colour  of  the  sea,  and 
how  all  then  make  for  the  shelter  of  the  great  promontory  Tabor, 
§  12,  I,  p.  266,  Geog.  Min.  Glrsec. 

^^  Eu  ois  TTOTf  7r\6U(Taj/T6S  67ri  TTjJ'  ecTCCTcpau  IpSiav  (fv  T77  TojSpoiroi'Tj,  fP 
r-p  facerepa  Ii'Sict  ep&a  ro  IuSikov  ireha-yos  tan,  p.  178),  Kai  virtpfiavTes 
fiiKpcf)  irpos  rriv  Bap0aptap'  €vda  rrepairepu)  to  Ziyyioy  rvyxo-Vft'  ovtw  yap 
KaAfoviTi  ro  arofxa  rov  ClK^avov  (K€i  (deupovv  fifv  ft?  to  Se^m  €i(T€pxofifvwv 
rjuwv,  ir\r)6os  vtT€iVQ>v...a  KaXovai  (Tova<pa,..Kai  8vaafpiav  Tto\KT)v  oicnt 
ZeiXic^v  Ttavrai'  fXiyov  yap  travres  Ttp  Kv0€pvr)rr}  aircoae  ttiv  vavv  €iri  ra 
apicrrepa  fis  rov  koXvop,  pp.  132-3.  And  Bap$apia  kvkXovtui  vtto  rov 
riKfavov  €K  Se^iuiV,  p.  137.  And,  avo  A^wjueeos  ewy  anpwv  rrjs  Ax^avuTO- 
<popov  rr]s  Aidionias  rrjs  KaXoviAevrjs  Bapfiapias,  r]ris  Kai  7ropa«€tTat  rfp 
ClKiav(^,  p.  138.  The  recommendation  to  the  steersman  would, 
therefore,  it  seems,  have  driven  them  further  out  to  sea,  unless  we 
suppose  that  they  were  just  doubling  the  promontorium  Aromata, 
when  it  would  bring  them  nearer  to  the  Arabian  coast. 

2^  'Cis  oiToj  «7«  Trefoucras  ro^s  roirous  fxaprvpu.  Of  the  desert  of 
Sinai,  p.  205. 

21  Here  Elesboas  commissioned  him  to  copy,  the  inscription  on 
the  throne  of  Ptolemy,  p.  141. 

22  c|  Sdv  rois  o<l)da\fxois  rjixcov  eOfaaafXiOa  fin  ra  ix(pr)  A^wfi^tos  €V  rp 
AidiovKf,  p  264. 

2J  Vide  Prologos  II.  I  have  noticed  only  those  places  which 
Cosmas  positively  states  he  had  visited,  but  he  insinuates  a  much 
wider  range  of  travel.  Thus  measuring  the  earth's  breadth  from 
the  Hyperborean  lands  to  Sasus,  he  says  there  are  but  two  hundred 
mansions  :  aKpifius  yap  ciriaraixtvoi,  /tat  ov  iroKv  Biaixapravoyres  rijs 
aXrjdfias,  ra  (jlcv  ir\€uaavT6$  Kai  oSevaravrfS  ra  5'  afcpt/3«s  fitnaOriKUS 
Kartypa^pafxiv,  p.  144. 


218  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

But  Cosmas,  a  mercliant  and  a  traveller,  mixed  mucli 
with  other  merchants  and  travellers ;  and  while  his 
simple  and  genial  nature  won  their  confidence,  his 
curious  and  enquiring  mind  drew  from  them  all  they 
had  to  tell  of  or  had  seen  in  other  lands  that  was  worthy 
of  note.  With  their  information  he  corrected  or  con- 
firmed his  own  impressions  and  enlarged  and  completed 
his  knowledge.  In  this  way  he  first  heard  from  Patri- 
cius  of  the  dangers  of  the  Zangian  Ocean,^*  and  in  this 
way  he  learned  the  adventures  of  Sopater  ;  and  in  this 
way,  by  going  among  the  slaves^^  of  the  merchants  at 
Adule  and  questioning  them  about  their  people  and 
country,  he  was  able  to  speak  to  the  correctness  of  the 
inscription  on  Ptolemy's  chair. 

As  a  merchant  engaged  in  the  Eastern  trade,  Cosmas 
was  interested  in  and  well  acquainted  with  everything 
relating  to  it.  He  has  accordingly  noticed  the  principal 
ports  at  which  it  was  carried  on,  together  with  the  kinds 
of  goods  which  each  port  specially  supplied.  He  speaks 
of  China,  the  country  of  silk,  as  lying  to  the  left  as  you 
enter  the  Indian  Sea  in  the  furthest  East  and  on  the 
very  borders  of  the  habitable  world,  and  yet  not  so  far 
but  that  in  its  cities  might  occasionally  be  seen  some 
Western  merchant  lured  thither  by  the  hope  of  gain.^^ 

^  ravra  8e  -irapa\a$(av  €K  rov  Oeiov  av^pov...riroi  Kai  aurrjj  ttjs  rreipas, 
fffri/xriva,  p.  132. 

^  Captain  Burton  describes  the  trade  at  Zanzibar  as  in  the 
hands  of  Arab  merchants,  who  bring  with  them  a  train  of  native 
porters,  some  of  them  as  many  as  two  hundred. 

2^  avTTi  5e  7]  x<*'P«  "^ov  nera^iov  cariv  ev  777  iawnpa.  iravroov  IvSiq,  Kara 
TO  apurr^pov  ixepoi  ^ktiovtou  rov  IvdiKov  ireKayeos,  and  a  little  before. 


CLAUDIUS   TO  JUSTINIAN.  219 

Adjoining  China^^  to  the  West  was  the  clove  region ; 
then  came  Caber  and  next  Marallo,  famed,  the  one  for 
its  alobandenum,  the  other  for  its  shells.  With  Marallo 
Ceylon  seems  to  have  been  in  communication,  as  it 
certainly  was  with  the  five  pepper  marts  of  Male,  Pudo- 
patana,  Nalopatano  and  Salopatana,  Mangarouth^^  and 
Purti,  and  the  other  ports  further  northward  on  the 
western  coast  of  the  Indian  Peninsula,  as  Sibor  and 
Calliana^^  a  place  of  great  trade  where  ships  might  load 
with  copper,  sesamine  wood,  and  clothing  stuffs,  Orr- 
hotha^^  and  Sindus,  which  last  exported  musk  and 
androstachys.  These  Indian  marts  forwarded  their 
wares  to  a  great  emporium  situated  on  the  southern 
coast  of  Ceylon,  where  they  exchanged  them  for  the 
silk,  cloves,  aloes,  tsandana,  and  other  merchandise 
which  came  from  China  and  the  countries  lying  east- 
ward, or  for  Koman  gold^^  and  the  manufactures  of  the 
West.     In  its  ports^^  you  might  see  ships  freighted  for, 

C(  yap  rives  Sia  fieTa^Tjv  eis  ra  fffxara  rrjs  yrjs  cfiiropias  oiKTpas  X°-P^^  °^*^ 
OKvovai  hieKQuv,  p.  137. 

27  For  this  account  of  the  countries  and  ports  of  the  East  trading 
with  Ceylon,  vide  pp.  337-8. 

28  "Mangarat,  urbs  inter  Malabaricas  maxima  regi  gentili 
obediens,"    Gildemeister  de  rebus  Indie,  p.  184. 

29  Calliana  :  Lassen,  Kaljani ;  Hippocura  on  the  mainland,  some- 
what to  the  north-west  of  Bombay. 

3"  Orrhotha,  Soratha,  Surat. 

8^  To  the  universal  use  of  Eoman  gold  Cosmas  testifies :  ev  ry 
vo/xianart  avrcou  (Pw/uoicov)  f/xiropivovTai,  iravra  ra  t6vT)...0av(xa^oiJ,ivov 
irapa  vavTos  av6puirov...iTfpc^  ^aaiKeicj,  ovk  inrapx^i  to  tojouto, p.  148. 

^  Ibn  Batoutah  similarly  speaks  of  Calicut,  the  great  emporium 
of  his  day.  "  Un  des  grands  ports  du  Malabar.  Les  gens  de  la 
Chine,  de  Java,  de  Ceylon,  des  Maldives,  du  Yaman,  et  du  Fars 
s'y  rendent,  et  les  trafiquants  de  diverses  regions  s'y  reunissent. 


220  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

X)v  coming  from,  Persia,  Ethiopia,  and  every  part  of 
India,  and  in  its  markets  you  met  with  men  of  all 
nations,  Indians,  Persians,  Homerites,  and  merchants  of 
Adule.  Answering  to  this  great  commercial  city  of  the 
East  was  Adule  in  the  West,  situated  some  two  miles 
inland^^  on  the  southern  shore  and  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Arabian  Gulf.  It  was  in  direct 
and  frequent  communication  with  India.  The  merchants 
of  (Ela  and  Alexandria  thronged  to  its  markets ;  for 
there  they  found,  besides  the  rich  productions  of  the 
East,  slaves,  spices,  emeralds,^*  and  ivory,  from  Ethiopia 
and  Barbaria. 

Besides  the  sea  route  from  China  to  the  Persian  Grulf, 
Cosmas  speaks  also  of  another  and  a  shorter  road^^  which 
led  through  Juvia,^^  India,  and  Bactria  to  the  eastern  con- 
fines of  Persia  one  hundred  and  fifty  stations,  and  thence 
through  Nisibis,  eighty  stations,  to  Seleucia,  thirteen 
stations  more,  and  each  station  he  computes  at  about 
thirty  miles.  That  this  road  was  much  frequented  may 
be  gathered  from  the  quantities  of  sUk  always  to  be 
found  in  Persia  and  which  it  brought  there ;  but  that 
it  was  used  only  by  Persian,  and  not  by  Eoman  mer- 
chants,^'' I  presume  from  the  exaggerated  length  attri- 


Son  port  est  au  nombre  des  plus  grands  du  monde,*'  iv,  89. 
Dufremery,  tr. 

83  Vide  pp.  140  and  338. 

34  Vide  p.  339. 

'^  SiaTf/xvei  ovv  iroWa  ^laarrifiara  6  Sia  ttjs  65ou  cpxofJievos  airo 
T^ivir^as  €iri  HepariSa,  6d€v  Kat,  -irKridos  ficTa^iov  oet  67ri  ttji/  Uepai^a 
(vpi(TK€Tai,  p.  138,  B. 

•^  lb.  "  Vaticanus  autem  Ouwia  secunda  inanu.*'     Note. 

3'  Ammianus  MarceUinua  seems  to  intimate  that  in  his  time 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  221 

biited  to  it  by  Cosmas,  and  his  generally  vague  account 
of  it.38 

He  speaks  of  Ceylon  as  situated  in  the  Indian  Sea 
beyond  the  pepper  country  midway  between  China  and 
the  Persian  Gulf,^^  and  as  lying  in  the  midst  of  a  cluster 
of  islands  which  are  all  covered  with  cocoanut  trees*^ 
and  have  springs  of  fresh  water.  On  the  authority  of 
the  natives  he  gives  it  a  length  and  breadth  of  about 
two  hundred  miles  each,  and  states  that  it  is  divided 
into  two  hostile  kingdoms.  Of  these  the  country  of  the 
Hyacinth  has  many  temples,  and  one  with  a  pinnacle 
which  is  surmounted  by  a  hyacinth  the  size  they  say  of 
a  fir  cone,  of  a  blood  red  colour,  and  so  bright  that  when 
the  sun  shines  upon  it,  it  is  a  wondrous  sight. ^^     The 

this  road  was  travelled  by  Eoman  merchants :  "  Prseter  quorum 
radices  et  vicum  quein  Lithinon  pyrgon  appellant  iter  longissimum 
mercatoribus  petitum  ad  Seras  subinde  commeantibus,"  p.  335. 

^  Nisibis  and  Pekin  are  on  the  thirty-seventh  and  fortieth 
parallels  of  north  latitude  respectively,  and  the  one  on  the  forty- 
first,  the  other  on  the  one  hundred  and  seventeenth  parallels  of 
longitude ;  there  are  consequently  seventy-six  degrees  of  longitude 
between  them.  But  according  to  Cosmas  there  are  two  hundred 
and  thirty  stations  of  thirty  miles  each,  or  6,900  miles.  In  the 
same  way  between  Seleucia  and  Nisibis  he  places  thirteen  stations, 
or  390  miles,  whereas  there  are  in  fact  but  four  degrees  of  latitude. 
Might  then  these  fiuvai  airo  fiiKiov  A'  be  airo  fiiXiov  k  of  twenty 
miles,  which  would  pretty  fairly  give  the  real  distance  ? 

89  "  L'ile  de  Kalah,"  Point  de  Galle,  "  qui  est  situee  a  mi-chemin 
entre  les  terres  de  la  Chine  et  le  pays  des  Arabes."  Eelations 
Arabes,  p.  93.  It  was  then  the  centre  of  traffic  both  from  and  for 
Arabia,  94  id. 

*>  apyeWia  (p.  336  Cosmas).  The  narikala  of  the  Hindus,  and 
the  nardgyl  of  the  Arabs.  Eel.  Arabes,  LVII  Discours  Prel. ;  and 
for  an  account  of  the  islands,  id.,  p.  4. 

•»i  Hiouen-Thsang  (a.d.  648,  some  century  after  Cosmas)  thus : 


222  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

other  kingdom  occupies  the  rest  of  the  island,  and  is 
celebrated  for  its  harbour  and  much  frequented  markets. 
The  king  is  not  of  the  same  race  as  the  people. 

In  Cosmas's  time  India  seems  to  have  been  parcelled 
out  into  many  petty  sovereignties ;  for  besides  these  two 
kings  of  Ceylon  he  knows  of  a  king  of  Malabar,  and 
kings  of  Calliena,  Sindus,  etc.,  but  all  these  rajahs  seem 
to  have  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of,  and  paid  tri- 
bute to,  Gollas,  king  of  the  White  Huns,*^  a  white  people 
settled  in  the  northern  parts  of  India.  Of  this  Gollas 
he  relates  that  besides  a  large  force  of  cavalry  he  could 
bring  into  the  field  two  thousand  elephants,  and  that 
his  armies  were  so  large  that  once  when  besieging  an 
inland  town  defended  by  a  water  fosse,  his  men,  horses 


"  A  c6te  du  palais  du  roi  s'el^ve  le  Yihara  de  la  dent  de  Bouddha. 
.  . .  Sur  le  sommet  du  Vihara  on  a  eleve  une  fleche  surmontee 
d'une  pierre  d'une  grande  valeur,  appellee  rubis.  Cette  pierre 
precieuse  repand  constamment  un  eclat  resplendissant.  Le  jour 
et  la  nuit  en  regardant  dans  le  lointain,  on  croit  voir  une  etoile 
lumineuse,"  II,  p.  141.  Fa-hian,  however,  who  was  at  Ceylon, 
A.D.  410  :  "  Dans  la  ville  on  a  encore  construit  un  edifice  pour  une 
dent  de  Foe.  II  est  entierement  fait  avec  les  sept  choses  pre- 
cieuses,"  p.  333.  Fa-hian  thus  mentions  this  Vihara,  and,  as  if 
only  lately  built,  but  says  nothing  of  the  hyacinth,  probably 
placed  there  subsequently  to  his  time,  v.  Marco  Polo,  449,  Societe 
Geog.,  ed. 

^2  To  OvvvcDV  r(ov  E(f)6a\ir(av  tQvos,  ovairep  XevKovs  ovofia^ovcri.  Pro- 
copius,  de  Bell.  Pers.,  I,  III,  p.  15.  EtpBaKirai  5e  Owvikov  fiev  sBvos 
€uri  /cat  ovofJi.a^ovrai...ixovoi.  Se  ovtoi  AeuKOi  re  ra  aufxara  Kai  ovk  afxaptpoi 
Tas  o^eis  f Iff IV,  p.  16,  id.  The  valley  of  the  Indus  seems  to  have 
been  occupied  by  a  Tartar  tribe,  even  in  the  first  century  of  our 
era.  Ptolemy  calls  the  lower  Indus  Indo-Scyth.  Eeinaud,  Mem. 
sur  rinde,  p.  8 1  and  p.  104. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  223 

and  elephants,  first  drank  up  the  water,  and  then 
inarched  into  the  place  dryshod.*^ 

He  speaks  of  elephants  as  necessary  to  the  state  of  an 
Indian  monarch,  and  of  the  petty  rajahs  of  the  sea-board 
as  keeping  some  five,  some  six,  hundred  elephants,  and 
of  the  king  of  Ceylon  as  having  moreover  a  stud  of 
horses  which  came  from  Persia  and  were  admitted  into 
his  ports  duty  free.^  His  elephants  he  bought  and  paid 
for  according  to  their  size  at  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
golden  pieces^^  each,  and  sometimes  even  more.  They 
were  broken  in  for  riding  and  were  sometimes  pitted  to 
fight  against  one  another,  but  with  their  trunks  only,  a 
barrier  raised  breast  high  preventing  them  from  coming 
to  closer  quarters.  The  Indian  elephants  he  observes 
have  no  tusks  and  are  tameable  at  any  age,  while  those 
of  Etliiopia  to  be  tamed  must  be  caught  young.*^^ 

As  a  Christian  he  naturally  observed,  and  as  a  monk 
willingly  recorded,  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  East. 

*3  Cosmas  Indicopleustes.  Montfaucon,  Nova  Coll.  Patrum,  I, 
p.  338. 

**  Tows  86  liTTTOvs  airo  Tlepaidos  <t)€pov(riv  aury,  Kai  ayopa^ci  Kai  Tiju^ 
arfXeiav  tovs  (pepovraSy  p.  339.  This  importation  of  horses  into 
India,  and  from  Persia,  continues  to  this  day,  and  is  frequently- 
alluded  to  by  Ibn  Batoutah ;  those  from  Pars  were  preferred,  pp. 
372-3,  II,  but  they  were  then  subject  to  a  duty  of  seven  silver 
dinars  each  horse,  ih.,  p.  374. 

45  vofxtaixara,  p.  339.  The  word  used  by  Sopater  in  the  preceding 
page,  consequently  a  gold  coin,  see  Embassy  to  Ceylon.  Proco- 
pius  observes  that  neither  the  Persian  king,  nor  indeed  any  bar- 
barian sovereign,  places  his  effigy  on  his  coins  (II,  417).  "  The 
Parthian  and  some  of  the  Hindu  kings  did." — Wilson's  Ariana 
Antiqua. 

*^  P.  339,  u.  s.,  and  compare  p.  141,  with  regard  to  the  Ethiopian 
elephants  from  the  inscription  at  Adule. 


224  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

In  Ceylon  there  was  a  Christian  church  of  Persian 
residents,  with  a  priest  and  deacons  and  other  ecclesi- 
astical officers,*^  all  from  Persia.  At  Male,  Calliena,  a 
bishop's  see,  and  the  Island  of  Dioscorides*^  (Socotora), 
were  Christian  communities,  also  dependent  on  Persia 
for  their  ministers  and  subject  to  the  Persian  metro- 
politan ;  and  this,  though  in  the  case  of  Socotora  the 
inhabitants,  colonists  from  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies, 
were  Greeks  and  spoke  Greek.  In  Bactria  too  and 
among  the  Huns  and  other  Indians  and  indeed  through- 
out the  known  world*^  were  numberless  churches, 
bishops,  and  multitudes  of  Christians,  with  many- 
martyrs,  monks,  and  hermits. 

He  describes  and  gives  drawings  of  some  of  the 
animals  and  plants  of  Ethiopia  and  India.  -  In  general 
he  closes  his  descriptions^^  by  stating,  either  that  he  has 

^7  Kai  -iraaav  rrfv  cKKXrjnriaa-riKrjv  Xeirovpyiav,  p.  337,  U.  S. 

''s  So  also  the  Relations  Arabes  of  Socotora :  "  La  plupart  de 
ses  habitants  sont  Chretiens... Alexandre  y  envoya  une  colonic  de 
Grecs...ils  embrasserent  la  religion  Chretienne.  Les  restes  de 
ces  Grecs  se  sont  maintenues  jusqu'  aujourd'hui,  bien  que  dans 
I'ile  il  se  soit  conserve  des  hommes  d'une  autre  race,"  p.  139,  and 
see  also  note,  pp.  217-59,  II,  v.,  where  Eeinaud  refers  to  both 
Cosmas  and  the  Periplus  of  the  Erythraean  Sea ;  see  also  Marco 
Polo,  p.  702,  Marsden's  ed. 

49  Cosmas  goes  through  the  several  nations  in  detail ;  but  having 
to  do  only  with  India  I  omit  particulars.  I  observe,  however, 
that  he  gives  no  Christians  to  China,  though  Masoudi  says  of 
Canton,  in  the  tenth  century :  "  the  town  is  inhabited  by  Mos- 
lims.  Christians,  Jews,  and  Magians,  besides  the  Chinese." — 
Meadows  of  Gold,  324,  I.  In  the  space  of  three,  rather  two  and  a 
half  (V.  Relations  Arabes,  p.  13),  centuries  then  Mahomedanism 
had  penetrated  to  China.  At  the  same  rate  of  progress  Chris- 
tianity should  have  been  known  there  in  the  third  century, 

50  For  these  descriptions,  vide  pp.  344-5,  and  the  drawings  at 
the  beginning  of  II,  v,  Montfaucon's  Nova  Coll.  Patrum. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  225 

himself  seen  what  he  has  been  just  describing  and 
where  and  how  he  saw  it,  or  if  he  have  not  seen  it,  what 
personal  knowledge  he  has  of  it.  Thus  to  his  notice  of 
the  rhinoceros  he  adds,  that  he  saw  one  in  Ethiopia  and 
was  pretty  near  it ;  to  that  of  the  Cheirelephus,  that  he 
had  both  seen  it  and  eaten  its  flesh ;  to  that  of  the  hip- 
popotamus, that  he  had  not  seen  it  but  had  bought  and 
sold  its  teeth ;  and  to  that  of  the  unicorn,  that  he  had 
only  seen  a  statue  of  one  in  brass  standing  in  the  four- 
turreted  palace  in  Ethiopia.  But  when  he  comes  to 
speak  of  the  bos  agrestis,  the  moschos,  and  the  pepper^^ 
and  cocoanut  trees,  animals  and  plants  belonging  to 
India,  I  observe  that  he  does  not  even  hint  at  any  per- 
sonal knowledge  of  them,  and  I  ask  myself — Was 
Cosmas  ever  in  India  ? 

When  his  ship  was  nearly  carried  away  into  the  Great 
Ocean,  Cosmas  was  then  bound  for  Inner  India  f^  and  as 
he  calls  Taprobane  an  island  of  Inner  India,  by  Inner 
India  I  presume  that,  unlike  the  ecclesiastical  writers 
of  his  age,  he  intends  not  Ethiopia  and  Arabia  Eelix, 
but  the  Indian  Peninsula.  Again  in  another  place 
after  having  spoken  of  Ceylon  and  alluded  to  the  prin- 
cipal marts  of  India,  to  the  White  Huns  settled  on  its 
northern    frontier    and    the    lucrative   commerce  the 


'^^  He  describes  the  pepper  tree  as  a  sort  of  vine,  very  unlike 
the  pepper  trees  I  have  seen  at  Palermo.  He  probably  means  the 
betel.  "  The  betel  is  a  species  of  pepper,  the  fruit  grows  on  a 
vine,  and  the  leaves  are  employed  to  wrap  up  the  areca  nut." — 
Heeren,  Hist.  Ees.,  II,  294.  "The  betel  is  found  in  the  two 
Indian  peninsulas,  Malabar  and  Arracan." — Id.,  295. 

^2  See  suj^ra,  note  19,  p.  217. 

Q 


226  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

Ethiopians  carry  on  with  them  in  emeralds,^^  he  adds, 
"  and  all  these  things  I  know  partly  of  my  own  know- 
ledge and  partly  from  what  I  have  learned  by  diligent 
inquiry  made  at  no  great  distance  from  the  places  them- 
selves." But  this  surely  is  no  evidence  of  India  visited, 
at  least  not  such  evidence  as  is  before  us  of  his  having 
been  at  Auxume  where  at  mid-day  with  his  own  eyes 
he  saw  the  shadows  falling  south ;  at  Adule,  where  at 
the  request  of  Elesboas  he  copied  the  inscription  on 
Ptolemy's  chair  \^^  or  in  Sinai,  which  he  trudged  through 
on  foot  listening  to  the  Jews  as  they  read  for  him  the 
Hebrew  letters  sculptured  on  its  boulders.^^  So,  notwith- 
standing that  he  passed  the  Straits  of  Bab-el-Mandeb 
and  lay  off  the  Island  of  Socotra  ;  notwithstanding  his 
name  of  Indicopleustes  and  his  vague  assertions ;  and, 
more  than  all,  notwithstanding  his  narrative,  which  is 
sober  as  fact  and  commonplace  as  reality,  I  cannot  help 
doubting  that  he  ever  was  in  India. 

On  a  review  of  these  notices  of  India,  it  seems  :  1st. 
That  for  nearly  a  century  after  the  fall  of  Palmyra  no 

53  Id.,  II,  339.  *'  Autrefois  on  portait  dans  l*Inde  Temeraude  qui 
vient  d'Egypte"  (Eel.  Arabes?),  153,  I,  232,11.  Olympiodorus, 
Excerp.  de  Legat.,  p.  466,  Corp.  Byz. 

^  For  Auxume,  vide  Cosmas,  Montfaucon,  II,  Col.  nova  Patrum, 
II,  p.  264.     Adule,  p.  144,  id. 

^^  ddey  cariv  iSeiP  ev  €K€ivr)  rri  eprjixq)  rov  'S.ivaiov  opovs  ev  iratTais  rats 
Karairavaeai  iravras  tovs  \idovs  twu  avToOi,  tovs  e/c  ruv  opeuv  airoKXwfi- 
/xivovs^ycypa/j.iJ.fvovs  ypafifxacri  yAinrrots  'E$paiKois,  &>s  avros  iyw  irf^ovaas 
rovs  roTTovs  p.apTvpa>.  aiiva  nai  rives  lovSaioi  avayvovres  SirjyovvTO  Vfxiu^ 
\iyoVT€i  y€ypa(pOai  ovrws — ampais  rov  5e,  eK  ^uAtjs  rrfS  Se,  erei  rcfSe, 
fi.rji'i  rifSf — Kada  Kai  Trap'  Tjfxiv  voWaKis  rivis  iv  rais  lenois  ypa<povaiv. — 
p.  205.  Does  be  allude  to  tbe  Nabatbsean  inscriptions  :  "  qui 
couvrent  les  parois  des  rocbers  de  la  presqu'ile  du  mont  Sinai"'? — 
Eeiuaud,  Mem.  sur  la  Merene,  p.  12,  tirage  a  part ;  and  for  tbese 
inscriptions,  Journal  Asiatique,  Jan.  and  Feb.,  185U. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  227 

important  mention  of  India  was  made  by  any  Greek  or 
Latin  writer  whatever.  2ndly.  That  the  accounts  of 
India  which  then  and  afterwards  appeared,  whether  in 
Travels,  Geographies,  Histories,  or  Poems,  those  in  the 
Topograph! a  Christiana  excepted,  were  all  in  the  main 
made  up  of  extracts  from  the  writings  of  previous  ages 
and  added  nothing  to  our  knowledge  of  India.  3rdly. 
That  of  such  writings  these  compilers  in  general  pre- 
ferred, not  those  which  recorded  authenticated  facts,^^ 
but  those  which  worked  most  on  the  imagination ;  and 
they  indeed  heightened  their  effect  by  new  matter  of  the 
same  character.  4thly.  That  these  writings  gradually 
took  rank  with,  and  even  displaced  the  more  critical 
studies  of  Strabo,  Arrian,  Ptolemy,  etc.  Thus  the 
Periegesis  of  Dionysius,*  on  which  Eustatius  wrote  a 
commentary,  and  the  Geography  of  the  anonymous 
writer  who  so  far  as  I  know  first  gave  locality  to  Eden, 
were  honoured  by  Latin  translations,  and  judging  from 
the  currency  their  fictions  obtained  became  the  text 
books  of  after  ages.  Thus  too  the  Bassarika  of  Dionysius 
for  Indian  countries  and  towns  is  more  frequently  re- 
ferred to  than  either  Strabo  or  Arrian  by  Stephanos 
Byzantius;  and  thus  the  Apollonius  of  Philostratus 
becomes  an  authority  for  Suidas/^  and  the  Theban 
Scholasticus  for  both  Suidas  and  Cedrenus,  who  borrow 
from  him  their  accounts  of  the  Brahmans/^  to  which 

^  The  description  of  India  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus  must  be 
excepted  from  this  censure,  v. 

*  Bernhardyus  places  Dionysius  at  the  end  of  the  third  or  early 
in  the  fourth  century,  the  latest  date  assigned  him. — Proleg.  Geog. 
Min.,  V.  II. 

'7  Vide  sub  vocibus,  Poros  et  Brahmans.     Suidas. 

^8  Hist.  Comp.,  267-8,  I,  v,  Bonn.     Here  the  description  of  the 


228  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

Cedrenus  adds  some  particulars  drawn,  partly  from  the 
anonymous  Geography  probably,  partly  from  the  Pseudo- 
Callisthenes^  and  partly  from  some  other  writer  whom  I 
am  unable  to  identify.  5 1 lily.  That  of  Eastern  travellers 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  many  were  priests  ;  as 
we  may  surmise  from  the  number  of  Christian  churches^^ 
in  India,  which  were  all  subject  to  the  Persian  metro- 
politan,^^ and  which  all  received  their  ecclesiastical  mi- 
nisters from  Persia,  or  sent  them  there  for  education  and 
ordination ;  and  as  we  gather  from  the  frequent  mention 
of  priests  in  the  travels  of  those  ages.  Thus  the  author 
of  the  Tract  inscribed  to  Palladius,^^  and  the  Theban 
Scholasticus  visit  India  in  company,  the  one  of  the 
Bishop  of  Adule,  the  other  of  a  priest.  And  Cosmas 
travels  on  one  occasion  with  Thomas  of  Edessa  after- 
wards metropolitan  of  Persia,  and  with  Patricius  of 
the  Abrahamitic  order ;  and  in  his  latter  years  he  be- 
comes a  monk,  as  does  also  Monas,^^  who  assisted  him  in 
copying  the  inscription  on  the  throne  of  Ptolemy.  6thly. 
That  notwithstanding  the  religious  spirit  which  evidently 

Brahmans  is  from  Palladius;  of  tlie  Macrobioi  from  the  Geo- 
graphy ;  the  story  of  Candace  from  the  pseudo-Callisthenis,  III, 
23 ;  but  whence  Alexander's  visit  to  Britain  ? 

59  V.  from  Cosmas,  supra,  p.  26. 

60  Jesujabus  of  Adiabene,  Patriarch  a.d.  650  (Assemann,  III,  p. 
313),  thus  remonstrates  with  Simeon,  Primate  of  Persia  :  "  At  in 
vestra  regione  ex  quo  ab  eccles.  canon  defecistis  interrupta  est 
ab  Indise  populis  sacerdotalis  successio  :  nee  India  solum  qua  a 
maritimis  reg.  Pers.  finibus  usque  ad  Colon  spatio  1200  parasangis 
extenditur,  sed  et  ipsa  Pers.  regio...in  tenebris  jacet.'' — Asse- 
mann, Bib.  Or.,  Ill,  131. 

61  Palladius  was  himself  a  great  traveller,  vide  Hist.  Lausiaca, 
Lauso  Epistola,  p.  897,  III,  Bib.  Vet.  Patrum,  ed.  de  la  Bigne^  as 
indeed  were  the  monks  and  priests  of  these  ages,  ib.,  passim. 

62  He  entered  the  monastery  of  Eaithu,  Eiim.     Cosmas,  p.  195. 


CL.\UDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  229 

animated  the  travel  writers  of  these  times,  their  accounts 
of  other  and  far  countries  are,  contrary  to  what  one  might 
have  expected,  singularly  silent  on  the  subject  of  the 
religions  of  the  people  they  visited.  I  have  already  ex- 
pressed my  surprise,  that  the  earlier  Christian  fathers, 
who  to  win  the  attention  of  the  sleeping  nations  called 
up  from  their  tombs  the  forgotten  creeds  of  Chaldsea  and 
Phoenicia,  Assyria  and  Egypt,  should  never  have  ap- 
pealed to  the  living  faith  of  Buddha.  Its  ritual  was  not 
unlike  the  Christian.  Like  Christianity,  it  rejected  the 
claims  of  race  and  country  and  in  itself  found  another 
and  stronger  bond  of  brotherhood.  Like  Christianity,  it 
was  a  religion  Catholic  and  Apostolic,  and  to  attest  its 
truth  not  a  few  had  died  the  martyr's  death.  It  was  the 
creed  of  an  ancient  race.  It  was  shrouded  too  in  a 
mystery  which  startled  the  self-sufficiency  of  the  Greek 
and  awakened  to  curiosity  even  Eoman  indifference. 
It  was  besides  eminently  fitted  to  elucidate  Christian 
doctrines,  and  therefore  to  draw  to  itself  the  attention 
of  Christian  writers  f^  and  yet — the  name  of  Buddha 
stands  a  phantom  in  their  pages.  But  then  few  were 
the  Hindus  who  visited  the  Eoman  world,  and  all  as 

^  Buddhism  and  Buddhist  practices  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  earliest  travellers  of  our  age.  Vide  Carpinus,  in  Hakluyt,  64, 1, 
and  Rubruqnis,  118,  127-8  ib.,  Marco  Polo,  p.  47,  S.  G.  ed.,  and  a 
summary  of  what  was  known  of  Buddhism  in  his  own  time  in 
Maffei,  Hist.  Indie,  p.  169,  12mo.  Marco  Polo  too  has  given  an 
account  of  Buddha,  pp.  449-50,  u.  s.,  with  some  errors,  no  doubt, 
but  wonderfully  correct  and  detailed  when  compared  with  the 
short  notices  in  Greek  writers.  But  still  none  of  these  early 
travellers  I  am  bound  to  say  connect,  or  see  any  similarity  be- 
tween, the  Buddhist  and  Christian  services.  Marco  Polo  only 
observes  of  Buddha  "si  fuisset  Christianus  fuisset  apud  Deum 
maximus  factus/'  ibid. 


230  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

merchants  lived  buying  and  selling,  though  not  all  were 
Buddhists.  And  if  here  and  there  one  more  earnestly- 
religious  than  his  fellows  was  eager  to  preach  Buddha's 
law,  whom  could  he  address  and  where  find  an  inter- 
preter for  thoughts  so  far  out  of  the  range  of  the  ordi- 
nary Greek  intellect?  Allow  however  that  he  had 
studied  and  mastered  the  Greek  language.  Among  his 
auditory,  the  merchants  with  whom  he  traded,  the  few 
men  of  letters  if  any  who  sought  his  society — that  a 
Christian,  one  of  a  small  community,  should  have  been 
found,  is  an  accident  scarcely  to  be  expected  ;  and  the 
silence  of  the  fathers  is  thus  in  some  measure  intelligible. 
But  now  that  we  have  a  Christian  church  in  Ceylon, 
and  Christians  who  are  daily  witnesses  of  the  ceremonial 
of  Buddhist  worship,  who  have  heard  of  Buddha's  life 
and  miracles  and  mission,  and  have  visited  the  monas- 
teries where  his  followers  retire  to  a  life  of  prayer  and 
self-denial,  I  cannot  understand  how  it  is  that  no  word 
relating  to  this  wide-spread  faith  has  reached  the  ears  of 
Cosmas,  or  has  attracted  the  notice  of  Syrian  bishops, 
and  that  these  ages  are  worse  informed  on  Buddhism 
than  was  that  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus. 

We  will  now  trace  the  changes  which  took  place  in 
the  commercial  relations  of  Eome  and  India.  When 
Palmyra  fell,  Alexandria  did  not  as  might  have  been 
expected  inherit  its  Indian  trade  and  the  wealth  and 
power  that  trade  brought  with  it.  For  when  Palmyra 
fell,  Alexandria  was  suffering  from  civil  war,  recent 
siege  and  capture.  Its  citizens  had  been  given  up  to 
plunder  and  put  to  the  sword,  and  Bruchium,  its  noblest 
quarter,  razed  to  the  ground.^"*     It  was  overwhelmed  by 

^^  See  from  Ammianus  Marcel,  and  Eusebius,  notes,  supra,  p.  166* 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  231 

its  own  disasters,  and  in  no  condition  to  engage  in  dis- 
tant and  costly  ventures.  But  when  Palmyra  fell,  the 
fleets  Arab  and  Indian  which  fed  its  markets  did  not 
perish  in  its  fall.  The  ships  and  crews  lived  still,  the 
populations  to  whose  wants  they  ministered^^  had  not 
disappeared.  The  old  demand  remained.  For  a  moment 
the  course  of  trade  is  disturbed.  A  great  mart  has  been 
destroyed,  and  others  must  be  found  or  created  to  take 
its  place.  At  first  probably  the  merchant  fleets,  as  was 
their  wont,  made  for  Vologesocerta,  and  there  delivered 
their  cargoes,  which  perhaps  found  a  way  up  the  right 
bank  of  the  Euphrates  to  Apamia,  and  thence  to  Antioch 
and  the  cities  of  Syria.  But  the  cost  of  transit  and  the 
want  of  a  back  freight  must  very  soon  have  closed  up 
this  route,  in  so  far  at  least  as  it  was  the  route  to  the 
Syrian  sea-board,  though  doubtless  the  river  remained 
always  the  great  highway  for  the  supply  of  Mesopotamia 
and  the  neighbouring  states.  And  now  it  was,  that  the 
Arabs  and  Indians  probably  began  to  frequent  the  ports 
which,  unknown  to  Strabo  and  Pliny,  studded  according 
to  Ammianus  Marcellinus  the  Persian  Gulf;^^  hither 
they  brought  the  products  of  the  East,  and  hence  shipped 
horses,  for  which  they  found  a  ready  sale  among  the 
kings  and  nobles  of  India  and  Ceylon.  And  now  too 
it  was  that  the  Arabs^^  turned  their  attention  to  the  Eed 

^  Appian  thus  describes  tlie  Palmyrenes :  A.vT(i)vio5...f'inKa\wv 
ouTOiS,  dri  Puixaiwv  Kai  Ilapdvaiuu  ovt€s  €(popiai,  ey  CKarepovs  €iri5e|iCD$ 
€ixov  envupoi  yap  ovres,  Kofn^ovai  fx^v  6K  li^pcruv  ra  IvZiKi  Kai  ApafiiKa, 
ZiaridevTai  5'  tv  ttj  Pco/jiaKDv,  de  Bel.  Civil.,  v,  ix. 

^  "  Cujus  sinus  per  oras  omnes  oppidorum  est  densitas  et 
vicorum,  naviumque  crebri  decursus,"  xxiii,  6,  II. 

^  Some  believe  the  last  Permaul  (of  Cochin)  was  induced  by 


232  INDIAN    EMBASSIES,   FKOM 

Sea  route,^  once  in  the  hands  of  the  Alexandrian  mer- 
chants, but  now  neglected.  In  a  deep  bay  on  the 
western  shores  of  the  Arabian  Gulf,^^  the  first  after 
having  entered  the  straits  which  afforded  shelter  and  a 
safe  anchorage,  they  found  Adule,  the  chief  port  of 
Ethiopia,  though  only  a  neat  village  in  the  time  of  the 
Periplus.  They  saw  that  access  to  it  both  from  East  and 
West  was  easy ;  that  it  lay  beyond  the  confines,  and  was 
not  subject  to  the  fiscal  regulations,  of  the  Eoman  Empire; 
that  its  mixed  population,  of  which  the  Arab  race  formed 
no  inconsiderable  part,  was  friendly  and  eager  to  forward 
their  views.  On  Adule  then  they  fixed  as  the  depot 
for  their  trade,  and  soon  raised  it  from  a  village  and 
petty  port  to  be  one  of  the  world's  great  centres  of  com- 
merce. 

But  under  the  immediate  successors  of  Aurelian  (died 
A.D.  275),  the  Eoman  Empire  was  in  so  disturbed  a 
state,  and  under  Diocletian  (a.d.  283-304)  Alexandria 
suffered  so  fearfully  for  its  recognition  of  Achilleus,  that 
its  merchants  were  probably  compelled,  and  not  disin- 
clined, to  leave  the  whole  Indian  trade  in  the  hands  of 
the  Arabs,  who  had  always  been  not  only  carriers  by 

the  Jains  (a.d.  378,  52)  to  proceed  to  Mekka,  at  which  place  many 
of  their  faith  were  established,  carrying  on  a  trade  with  India  which 
subsequently  fell  into  Moorish  hands.  Day,  Land  of  the  Perinauls, 
p.  44,  he  refers  to  a  paper  by  Kookel  Kelso  Nair,  Madras  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Science,  no  year,  volume,  or  page. 

^  It  had  been  known  from  old  time.  Agartharohides  (2nd  cent. 
B.C.)  speaks  of  the  native  boats  which  from  the  Fortunate  Islands 
(probably  Socotora)  traded  with  Pattala,  on  the  Indus.  Be  Mari 
Eryth.,  §  133.     Muller,  Geog.  Min.,  I,  p.  191. 

69  ifxTtopiov  vofxtfiov  Keifxevov  ev  KoKirtp  Bad(i...airo  oTaSiuv  eiKoai  TTfS 
daKaaarjs  €<ttiv  t)  Adovhis  KoofXTi  avfjifurpos. — Periplus,  §  45  or  §  4. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  233 

land  and  sea  but  traders  also,  as  the  story  of  Scytliianus 
proves  ;  and  who,  as  they  travelled  from  city  to  city, 
carried  their  wares''^  with  them  and  wherever  they 
stopped  exposed  them  for  sale  and  thus  supplied  the 
immediate  wants  of  the  neighbourhood  and  the  trades- 
men of  the  district.  But  with  the  restoration  of  order, 
during  the  long  reign  of  Constantine,  the  Eoman 
merchant  grew  wealthy  and  enterprising ;  he  extended 
the  sphere  of  his  operations,  and  though,  partly  from 
inability  to  compete  with  the  cheaply  built  but  well 
manned  craft  of  the  Arabs,  and  partly  from  long  disuse 
and  consequent  ignorance  of  the  Indian  seas,  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  again  ventured  his  ships  upon  them, 
yet  he  gradually  recovered  his  old  position  in  the 
Arabian  Gulf,  and  at  least  shared  in  its  trade  from 
Adule  homeward.71  To  Adule  he  himself  resorted,  and 
at  Adule  through  his  agents^^  managed  his  dealings  with 

70  The  wealth  of  Scythianiis,  when  it  came  into  the  handa 
of  Manes,  consisted  xp^co^  «o"  apyvpov  Kai  apw/jLarcDU  Kai  aWwv  (Epi- 
phanius  con.  Manichse.  617,  I)  showing  that  Scythianus's  journey 
to  Jerusalem,  if  undertaken  primarily  in  the  interest  of  truth,  was 
not  without  some  commercial  object. 

^  Both  by  his  ships  on  the  Red  Sea  and  his  fleets  of  boats  on  the 
Nile.  Of  Roman  ships  on  the  Red  Sea  we  know  from  Cosmas  and 
Procopius  (de  Bello  Pers.,  I,  19,  p.  101).  Of  the  traffic  on  the 
Nile  we  may  get  some  notion  from  the  ruse  employed  by  Athan- 
asius  to  escape  from  his  pursuers  (Photius,  Hoeschiel,  p.  1448), 
and  more  directly  from  the  wealth  Palladius  gives  an  Alexandrian 
merchant,  avipu  tvXafi-qv  Kai  <pi\oxpi<TTOv,  Svo  fxvpiaSar  XP^"''**'""'  irpay- 
^lartvofxivov  fiera  eKUTov  trKotutv  €k  ttjs  avcoTtpas  0rjj8ai5oj  Kanovra. 
LXV,  Hist.  Lausiaca. 

'2  I  conclude  this  from  a  passage  in  Procopius  already  cited  in 
part.  Telling  of  the  slaves  and  adventurers  left  behind  him  by 
Hellestheeus,  on  his  return  from  the  conquest  of  the  Homerites, 


234  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

the  East,  leaving  to  the  Arabs  and  perhaps  the  Indians 
all  the  risks  and  profits  of  tlie  ocean  voyage. 

But  that  Eoman  intercourse  with  India  was  indirect 
and  kept  up  by  Arab  vessels  is  so  contrary  to  received 
opinion,  that  T  will  now  cite  and  examine  the  few  events 
and  notices'^^  bearing  on  the  Indian  trade  which  are  to 
be  met  with  in  ancient  writers.     And, 

I.  The  embassy  to  Julian'''*  (a.d.  361)  is  scarcely  con- 
ceivable, unless  during  his  reign  or  rather  that  of  Con- 
stantine  some  and  probably  a  commercial  intercourse 
existed  between  India  and  the  Eoman  Empire.^^     But 

he  says  ovroi  6  Xecas  aw  irepois  riciv  EaiUKpaicp  Tip  ^a(n\fi  (Travaarav- 
Tfs  avrov  fxip  eu  riPi  rcav  ^KeLi'ij  (ppovpiuv  Kadeip^au,  erepopSe  'O/mepirais 
fiaaiKea  KareaT-rjaavTo  Afipafiop  ficp  opu/xa'  6  Se  APpafxos  ovtos  xptariavos 
fxep  r)v,  5<)v\o9  Se  Pco/xatov  apSpos,  eu  n-oAft  AidioTiOfP  A5ovXi8i  ini  ttj  Kara 
daKaacrap  epyaaia  diarpilirjP  exovros. — Id.,  I,  p.  20,  105.  And  that 
commercial  agents  were  of  old  date  may  be  shown  from  Relations 
Arabes,  I,  68. 

'^  From  Alexander's  conquest  of  India  to  the  close  of  Justinian's 
reign  embraces  a  period  of  about  nine  hundred  years ;  from  the 
rediscovery  of  India  in  a.d.  1498  to  the  publication  of  Maflfei's 
Historise  Indices  not  a  century  elapsed  ;  and  yet  Maffei  has  given 
an  account  of  India  and  China,  of  the  manners,  customs,  charac- 
ters, and  religions  of  their  peoples  with  which  not  all  the  notices 
of  India  collected  from  nine  centuries  of  Greek  and  Eoman  writers 
are  to  be  compared  for  falness  and  accuracy.  Does  not  this  in 
itself  go  far  to  prove  that  our  relations  with  the  East  in  Maffei's 
time  merely  commercial  and  religious  were  very  different  from 
those  of  Greece  and  Rome,  which  at  first  purely  political  were  then 
frequent  and  intimate,  but  which  in  the  end  became  commercial 
only  and  must  have  been  confined  to  an  interchange  of  goods,  and 
that  without  any  intercourse  with  the  people  ? 

74  Vide  supra,  pp.  125-6. 

■^5  In  a  Geographical  Tract,  Totius  Orb  is  Descriptio,  translated 
from  the  Greek  and  written  a.d.  350-3,  Geog.  Minor.,  II,  520,  it  is 
said  oi  Alexandria :  "  Hsec  cum  Indis  et  Barbaris  negotia  gerit 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAIT.  235 

as  for  sucli  an  embassy,  the  presence  at  the  Sinhalese 
Court  of  any  enterprising  Eoman  merchant,  a  Sopater, 
and  who  like  Sopater  may  have  reached  Ceylon  in  an 
Adulitan  ship,  would  fully  account, — and  indeed  its 
Serendivi,  so  much  more  akin  to  the  Serendib  of  the 
Arabs  than  the  Salike  of  Ptolemy,  smacks  of  Arab 
companionship  and  must  have  filtered  through  Arab 
lips— I  cannot  look  upon  it  as  indicative  of  an  inter- 
course either  direct  or  frequent. 

II.  Epiphanius  (about  a.d.  375)  gives  some  few  de- 
tails relating  to  this  trade.  In  his  story  of  Scythianus 
he  speaks  of  the  Eoman  ports  of  entry  in  the  Eed  Sea, 
CEla,  the  Alah  of  Solomon,  Castron  Clysmatos,"^^  and 
Berenice,  and  observes  that  through  Berenice  Indian 
wares  are  distributed  over  the  Thebaid,  and  by  the  Nile 
are  carried  down  to  Alexandria  and  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  to  Pelusium,  and  thus  passing  by  sea  into  different 
cities,  iraTpiha^^p  the  merchants  from  India  import  their 
goods  into  the  Eoman  territory.  From  this  passage, 
written  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  it  appears  : 

merito ;  aromata  et  diversas  species  pretiosas  omnibus  regionibus 
niittit."  But  another  version,  ih.,  "  supra  caput  enim  habens 
Thebaidis  Indorum  genus  et  accipiens  omnia  prsestat  omnibus" — 
thus  showing  that  although  dealing  in  Indian  wares  its  Indians 
were  only  Ethiopians. 

76  So  called  because  here  the  Israelites  crossed  over  the  Eed  Sea. 
Cosmas,  Montfaucon,  Col.  Nov.  Pat.,  p.  194. 

77  'Opuoi  yap  ttjv  Epv9p7]s  OaAaaarjs  Siatpopoi,  eiri  ra  (nofiia  rrjs  Pw/xo- 
Pias  SiaKiKpi/xfVOi,  6  fxev  eh  €iri  rrju  Ai\av...6  5e  erepos  (iri  ro  Kaarpov 
KKvafiUTos'  aWws  5e  avwraron  fxi  rrjv  BepviKTiv  KaK(wpi.iVir\v,  5t'  7]S  BepviKtjs 
KaXovfxevns  em  r-qv  &r)0ai^a  (pepovrai  Kai  to  otto  ttjs  IvSikti^  epxafifpa  eiSr} 
fKfi(re  TT)  @r}0aiSi  SiaxvvfTai,  icai  €irt  ttji/  AXe^auSpeiav  5ia  TOu...Ne(Aou 
Kai  fTTi  iraaav  tcdi'  PnyvnTtDV  yrju,  Kai  firi  to  TlfAovtriov  (peperai,  Kai  ovtus 
€t$  ras  aAAas  TrarpjSas  Sta  6a\aaarjs  Sifpxofifvoi  ol  ano  ttjj  USiktjs  firi  ttji* 

Vwfiai'iai^  ffjiiropevovTai. — Epiphanius,  a.  Hseres.,  XL VI,  p.  618,  I. 


236  INDIAN  E:,IB ASSIES,   FROM 

1st.  That  EpijDlianius  speaks  of  Indian  goods  as  then 
imported  by  sea  and  through  one  port,  Berenice,  into  the 
Eoman  Empire. 

2ndly.  That  he  uses  the  same  terms^^  to  designate 
both  the  imported  goods  and  the  importing  merchants, 
and  thus  possibly  intimates  that  like  the  goods  the 
merchants  also  were  "  Indian,"  i.e.,  Arabs  of  either 
Ethiopia  or  Eastern  Arabia,  the  Indians  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical writers  of  this  age.  Indeed  one  might  ask 
whether  it  was  not  owing  to  their  association  with 
Indian  wares  that  these  peoples  came  to  be  themselves 
known  as  Indians. 

ordly.  That  he  makes  no  mention  of  Adule.  But 
Adule,  however  closely  connected  with  the  ocean  trade 
between  Kome  and  India,  was  really  an  Ethiopic  city, 
and  could  therefore  scarcely  find  a  place  in  this  itinerary 
which  begins  with  the  Eoman  ports  of  entry. 

III.  The  presence  at  Alexandria  (some  time  before 
A.D.  470)  of  those  Hindus  whom  Severus  lodged  in  his 
house."^^  I  have  already  remarked  on  the  inexplicable 
proceedings  of  these  travellers  who,  as  they  were  neither 
merchants  nor  public  officers,  could  only  have  travelled 
for  amusement  or  instruction,  and  who  took  every  pre- 
caution against  either.^^     I  would  now  direct  attention 

'8  ra  airo  rrjs  Iv^ikt^s  epxofJL^va  etSrj  and  Siepxonevoi  ol  airo  rrjs  IfSiffTjs. 
The  lighter  and  more  precious  wares  are  expressed  by  the  word 
6t57],  as  spices,  pearls,  etc.  It  corresponds  with  the  "notions"  of 
American  commerce. 

79  Vide  supra,  p.  189. 

^  Many  an  English  traveller  might  be  cited  whose  habits  abroad 
very  much  resemble  those  of  Damascius'  Hindus.  But  then  we 
travel  for  fashion's  sake  a  good  deal,  because  we  must ;  but  a 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAIT.  237 

to  the  character  as  well  of  Severus  who  received,  as  of 
Damascius  who  has  recorded  their  visit.  Both  clung  to 
the  old  superstition  :  and  the  one  was  supposed  to  favour 
its  re-establishment  by  his  personal  influence  and  the 
other  by  his  writings,  the  very  dotage  of  "Platonic 
Paganism."^^  Both  were  credulous :  and  as  Severus 
would  without  examination  and  only  too  eagerly  have 
welcomed  as  guests  any  men  calling  themselves  Hindus 
with  whom  he  became  acquainted,  so  Damascius  would 
have  noticed  a  visit  of  any  reputed  Hindus,  whether 
made  or  not,  if  said  to  be  made  to  such  a  man.  The 
visit  is  open  to  suspicion. 

IV.  The  Indian  embassy  to  Justinian.  Malalas  notices 
two  Indian  Embassies,  either  of  which  may  possibly  be 
Hindu.  The  first  reached  Constantinople  with  its  gifts 
the  same  year  (a.d.  530)  that  John  of  Cappadocia  was 
made  Praetorian  Prsefect ;  the  second  with  an  elephant 
about  the  time  (a.d.  552)  that  Narses  was  sent  into 
Italy  against  the  Goths.'^^  Now  with  regard  to  the 
first  of  these  embassies,  as  in  Malalas  the  Ethiopians 
and  Eastern  Arabs  are  called  Indians,'^^  the  question 
arises  whether  this  embassy  does  not  properly  belong  to 

Hindu  who  leaves  liis  country  travels  because  he  has  in  him  the 
spirit  of  travel ;  he  travels  as  Mango  Park  did,  Belzoni,  Burkhardt, 
and  many  others,  impelled  by  the  strong  desire  to  see  strange  men 
and  strange  lands. 

^  See  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  c.  xxxvi,  sub  an.  468,  and  the 
extracts  from  Damascius,  in  Photius  Bibliotheca,  p.  1042. 

S2  V.  from  Malalas,  note  supra,  p.  126,  and  Malalas,  p.  484. 
IvdiKTiwvos  17'  TrpeaPevTrjs  h'Soov  KttTfir(fi<pdr]  fxera  kul  c\c<pavTos  €V 
KotvaraurivoTToKfi. 

^  Malalas,  u.  s.,  and  p.  457;  also  Asseman,  Bib.  Orient.,  lY,  pp. 
452-3. 


238  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FKOM 

some  one  or  other  of  these  peoples  ;  and  to  answer  it  we 
must  enter  into  some  detail.  From  Malalas  and  Pro- 
copius^*  we  gather :  that  there  were  seven  Indian  king- 
doms, three  Homerite,  and  four  Ethiopian;  that  the 
Ethiopians  occupied  the  regions  lying  eastwards  and 
extending  to  the  ocean,  and  carried  on  a  great  trade  from 
Auxume  with  Rome  through  the  Homerite  country;  that 
some  time  prior^  to  a.d.  529,  Dimnos,  Damianus  (Theo- 
phanes),  Dunaan  (Asseman),  the  Homerite  king,  who 
with  many  of  his  people  was  of  the  Jewish  persuasion, 
seized  upon  some  Roman  merchants  while  traversing  his 
dominions  in  pursuit  of  their  business,  confiscated  their 
goods  and  put  them  to  death,  in  retaliation  as  he  pre- 
tended for  the  continued  persecutions  to  which  Jews 
were  subjected  in  the  Roman  states  ;  that  the  Auxumi- 
tan  trade  with  Rome  was  in  consequence  interrupted, 
and  that  the  Auxumitan  king,  aggrieved  by  the  injury 
to  himself  and  the  wrongful  death  of  his  allies,  invaded 
and  subdued  the  Homerites,  and  in  fulfilment  of  a  vow 
contingent  on  his  success  declared  himself  a  Christian. 
To  this  Ethiopian  sovereign  or  rather  his  successor,  called 
Elesboas  by  Malalas,  Hellesthoeus^^  by  Procopius,  on  the 

8«  Malalas,  p.  433.  Procopius,  de  Bello  Pers.,  p.  104.  The 
division  of  the  Indians  into  kingdoms  belongs  to  Malalas ;  the 
slaughter  of  the  Eoman  merchants  and  its  cause  and  consequences 
to  both. 

^  In  A.D.  522-524,  vide  Asseman,  u.  s.,  I,  865,  note  and  text, 
where  is  an,  if  genuine,  extraordinary  letter  of  Dunaan' s,  in  which 
with  evident  satisfaction  he  details  all  the  cruelties,  and  they 
are  fearful,  which  he  has  inficted  on  the  Christians  within  his 
power,  no  one  of  whom  has  wavered  in  his  faith. 

^  The  converted  king  Malalas  calls  Andas,  p.  434,  Theophanes 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAX.  239 

breaking  out  of  the  Persian  AVar  (a.d.  529),  Justinian 
sent  an  embassy,  and  adjured  him  by  their  common 
faith  to  invade  the  Persian  territory,  and  breaking  off 
all  commercial  relations  with  the  Persians  to  send  ships 
to  those  Indian  ports  where  silk  was  to  be  found  and 
there  purchase  it,  and  thence  by  way  of  the  Homerite 
country  and  down  the  Nile  and  through  Egypt  to  im- 
port it  into  Alexandria;  and  as  an  inducement  to 
attempt  this  enterprise  he  held  out  to  him  the  prospect 
of  a  monopoly  and  the  hopes  of  great  profits.  But 
Procopius  observes  that,  though  the  Ethiopians  promised, 
and  exerted  themselves,  they  failed,  to  gain  a  share  in 
the  silk  trade :  for  they  found  the  ground  already  occu- 
pied by  Persian  merchants  who  everywhere  forestalled 
them  in  the  Indian  markets. ^^  And  Malalas  concludes 
his  account  of  this  negotiation  by  stating  that  Elesboas 
in  return  sent  an  Indian  ambassador  with  letters,  aaKpa^, 
and  gifts  to  the  Koman  Emperor.  Is  then  our  Indian 
Embassy  the  same  as  this  one  from  Elesboas  ?^^  and  does 

Adad  J  Aidog,  Asseman,  u.  s.,  I,  359,  notes  5  and  6.  The  king  of 
the  Embassy,  Cosmas  like  Malalas  knows  as  Elesboas.  The  am- 
bassador I  should  have  thought  was  Nonnosus,  who  left  an  account 
of  his  embassy,  and  from  the  ambassador,  whoever  he  was  (Pro- 
copius calls  him  Julianus,  as  also  Theophanes,  Chronog.,  p.  377), 
Malalas  derived  his  information,  pp.  457-8  ih.,  and  he  gives  a 
graphic  description  of  this  barbaric  court. 

^  To<5  T€  At0to\|/t  T7]P  /xera^av  covfiffOai  irpos  rcav  JvZcov  oBvvarov  rfV. 
firei  oet  56  oi  Tlepaav  ffxiropoi  irpos  avrois  TOis  do/mois  "yet'o/JLevoi  (ov  Se 
trpwTa  al  tujv  YvZtav  vrjej  Karaipovaiv^  are  x«paf  -npoaoiKouvTes  rr\v  Sixopov), 
avavTa  coveiadai  ra  (popria  ^ludaai. — Procopius,  u.  s.,  p.  106.  And  in 
Justin's  reign  the  Turks  seem  to  have  taken  the  place  of  the  Per 
sians,  ol  TovpKOi  tots  to  re  ^rjpuu  ffitropia  Kai  tovs  \ifx€vas  KoretX"" 
Tavra  Se  irpiv  fxiv  Utpaat.  Kareixo"* —Excerpt.  Theophani.  Hist.  Ex- 
cerpta  de  Legationibus,  p.  484. 

^  Elesboas  having  received  and  entertained  Justinian's  Embassy, 


240  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

its  first  mention  refer  to  its  departure  from  Auxume,  its 
second  to  its  arrival  in  Constantinople  ?  Or  is  it  to  be 
referred  to  some  one  of  the  Pseudo-Indian  kingdoms  ? 
Or  though  unrecorded  by  any  other  writer,  is  it  really 
Hindu  ?  Who  shall  tell  ?  With  regard  to  the  second 
Embassy :  it  is  noticed  by  both  Theophanes  and  Ced- 
renus/^  but  noticed  seemingly  not  because  it  was  any 
strange  sight  in  Constantinople,  but  because  its  elephant, 
a  native  of  Africa  as  of  India,  broke  loose  and  did  much 
mischief.  However  this  may  be,  a  Hindu  Embassy  in 
Constantinople  was  no  improbable  event,  for  after  Eles- 
boas  had  at  the  instance  of  Justinian  ineffectually 
attempted  to  open  up  the  trade  with  India,  would  he 
not  naturally  bring  over  and  forward  to  the  Koman 

Kareir6/ut|/6  Kai  ffaxpai  8ia  Ivdov  Trpecr$impov  KaiSuspa  rtp  jSaatAei  Pooixaiuv. 
Malalas,  p.  458,  and  afterwards,  p.  477,  incidentally  mentions  the 
Embassy  we  have  been  examining :  eu  avrcp  Se  ry  XP<"'¥  '^°"  irpca- 
j8i/TTjs  IvSoov  /xiTa  SapoDv  Kar^ir€fx(pOr]  ev  KwvaTuvTiuovnokei,  /cat  avTcp  7Cp 
XP<^vV  IwavfTjs  6  KaiTTTaSol  €yiV€To  tirapx^s  vpaiTupiwv. 

89  The  chronology  of  these  times  is  loose  and  uncertain.  Ac- 
cording to  Theophanes  (Chron.  1,  346-7)^  the  Christianisation  of 
Auxume,  represented  by  its  kings  (they  had  probably  gone  back 
to  their  old  heathen  faith),  and  the  events  which  led  to  it,  occurred 
A.J).  535,  and  the  Embassy  with  the  elephant,  a.d.  543.  Cedrenus 
refers  it  to  a.d.  550.  Taking  then  the  dates  assigned  by  Malalas, 
A.D.  530  for  our  first,  a.d.  552  for  the  second.  Embassy,  it  is 
clear  that  the  first  Embassy  follows  too  closely  on  the  alliance  and 
engagements  of  Elesboas,  while  between  these  and  the  second 
there  is  too  great  an  interval,  to  admit  of  the  reasons  I  have  ad- 
duced for  either  one  of  these  Embassies  being  Hindu.  Of 
Theophanes'  dates  (he  lived  early  part  of  ninth  century)  I  scarcely 
like  to  speak — the  first  is  so  manifestly  wrong.  Bub  if  we  take 
a.d.  542  for  the  date  of  the  Elephant  Embassy,  and  a.d.  533, 
Gibbon's,  for  that  of  Justinian's  to  Auxume,  then  these  reasons 
would  be  pertinent  enough. 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  241 

court  some  native  Indians,  ambassadors  or  others,  as  the 
surest  evidence  he  could  give  of  his  good  faith  and  zeal 
in  carrying  out  his  part  of  the  treaty  ?  One  of  these 
embassies  may  be  Indian,  but  it  is  no  proof  of  any 
direct  intercourse  with  India.  Indeed  the  whole  narra- 
tive rather  intimates  that  Eoman  enterprise  extended  no 
further  than  Auxume,  and  that  all  trade  beyond  was  in 
the  hands  of  some  other  people. 

V.  The  introduction  of  the  silk-worm  into  the  Eoman 
Empire.  According  to  Procopius^^  it  happened  in  this 
wise.  Aware  of  the  interest  Justinian  took  in  the  silk 
trade,  some  monks  from  India  who  had  lived  long  in 
Serinda  (Theophanes^^  says  it  was  a  Persian),  brought 
over  in  a  reed.(ez^  vapOrj/ci)  silk- worm's  eggs,  taught  the 
Eomans  how  to  treat  them,  and  by  acclimatizing  the 
worm  to  make  themselves  in  the  article  of  silk  inde- 
pendent of  the  Persians  and  other  people.  I  incline  to 
think  that  the  monks  were  Persians ;  for  India  was 
under  the  Persian  metropolitan,  and  its  churches  as  we 
learn  from  Cosmas  were  served  by  priests  from  Persia  ; 
and  a  Persian  Christian  would  be  more  Christian  than 
Persian,  and  more  likely  to  benefit  his  co-religionists 
than  his  countrymen.     But  let  the  monks  be  Eomans, 

^  'Tiro  TovTov  rov  xpovop  Tives  fxovaxov  €^  Ii-Sa;!'  t]kovt€^  yvovres  T€ 
cos  lovarii'iapcp  5ia  anou5r)S  fir}  ixrjKeTi  irpos  Hepauv  tt]V  fxtra^av  wpetadai 
Vuixaiovs,  etc. — De  Bel.  Goth.,  p.  546. 

91  ^yjf,  ,j-c^„  aKwArjKcov  yepecriv  avrjp  n€p(nis...ev  Bt'^avncfi  vireSei^tP' 
ovTos  (K  '2,rfpwv...ro  airfpfxa  roou  aKwXrjHcov  ev  vap6r}Ki  Xa^uv  juex^t  Bufai'- 
Tiou  SierxftxraTo,  etc. — Excerpta  Theoph.  Hist.,  p.  484,  lived  close  of 
the  sixth  century.  The  seed  was  brought  overland,  as  the 
French,  to  avoid  the  tropical  heats,  are  now  sending  it. —  Times, 
May  12,  1863. 

li 


242  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FROM 

and  Eomans  we  know  did  occasionally  visit  and  sojourn 
in  India,  and  their  introduction  of  the  silk- worm  is  no 
evidence  of  any  ocean  trade  with  India. 

VI.  A  passage  in  Procopius  which  intimates  that 
Koman  ships  frequented  the  seas  in  which  were  found 
the  loadstone  rocks.  This  passage  I  will  quote  at  length 
and  examine.  After  having  described  the  Arabian  Gulf 
from  OEla,  and  told  of  its  islands  and  the  Saracens  and 
Homerites  on  its  Eastern  coast,  and  alluded  to  the  many 
other  peoples  living  inland  up  to  the  very  borders  of  the 
cannibal  Saracens,  beyond  whom  he  places  the  Indians, 
"  but  of  the  Indians  leaves  others  to  speak  at  their  dis- 
cretion,"^^ Procopius  returns  to  Boulika  of  the  Homerites, 
and  notices  the  calm  sea  and  easy  transit  thence  to 
Adule.  He  then  proceeds  to  treat  of  Ethiopia,  but  first 
touches  on  the  peculiarly  constructed  boats  used  by  the 
Indians,  €v  JvBoi,<;,  and  on  this  sea.  "  They  are  not,"  he 
observes,  "  painted  over  with  tar  or  anything  else, 
nor  are  their  planks  made  fast  to  one  another  by  iron 
nails  but  with  knotted  ropes,  ^po'xpL^,  and  tliis  not  as 
is  generally  supposed,  because  there  are  in  these  seas 
rocks  which  attract  imn( for  the  Roman  sliifs  from  CEla, 
though  iron-fastened,  suffer  nothing  of  the  sort),  but 
because  the  Indians  and  Ethiopians  neither  have  any 
iron  nor  are  able  to  buy  any  from  the  Eomans,  who  are 
forbidden  to  sell  it  them  on  pain  of  death.     Such  is  the 


^2  ol  Se  'O/xrjpiTai  ovroi  €v  x^P^  '''V  €ir€K€tva  WKUvrai  irpos  tt?  ttjs 
OaXaaaris  rfovi,  virep  re  avrovs  aWa  eOvrj  iroWa,  /xexP*  ^s  rovi  avQpuirotpa- 
yovs  ^apaKTjvovs,  iSpvaOai  <paai'  jue0'  ovs  5e  70  yevr}  twv  Iv^wv  earip.  aWa 
rovTwv  fiev  Trept  Myerft}  kKaaros  us  irr)  awry  fiov\ofxiucf  eariv. — De  Bello 
Pers.,  p.  100. 


CLAUDJUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  243 

state  of  things  about  the  so-called  Eed  Sea  and  the 
coasts  on  each  side  of  it."^^  On  this  passage  I  will 
observe — 

1st.  That  as  long  as  it  treats  of  the  shores  of  the 
Arabian  Gulf,  where  the  Komans  traded,  its  language  is 
clear  and  definite  enough,  but  as  vague  when  it  comes 
to  speak  of  the  inland  peoples,  of  whom  very  evidently 
Procopius  had  been  able  to  obtain  very  imperfect  infor- 
mation. 

2ndly.  That  the  Indoi  with  whom  the  Ethiopians 
and  the  Persians  seem  to  have  had  commercial  dealings 
must  have  been  the  inhabitants  of  a  country  without 
iron,  and  not  therefore  of  India  celebrated  of  old  time^^ 
for  its  steel,  but  very  possibly  of  Arabia,^^  into  which 
in  the  age  of  the  Periplus  iron  and  sometimes  from 
India  was  regularly  imported,  and  the  boats  of  which^^ 
quite  answered  to  the  description  of  Procopius. 

^  ra  ixev  ovv  aix<pi  rri  epvOpq,  OaKaffaij  Kai  X"P<?  V  awTTjs  €^'  eKarepa  (an 
ravrp  irri  fX^t. — lb.,  p.  102. 

9*  Ctesias,  p.  80,  4. 

9^  Of  Arabia  or  Arabians  settled  in  Ethiopia.  Elsewhere  Pro- 
copius speaks  of  Ethiopia  as  India  :  Net\os  /x6«/...e|  Ipduv  ctt'  Ai7U7rTou 
iptpofjLevos ,  etc.     De  ^dificiis,  vi,  I,  p.  331,  III. 

9^  "  Les  vaisseaux  Arabes  n'approchaient  pas  pour  la  force  des 
vaisseaux  Chinois  (Ibn  Batutah  mans  each  junk  with  1,000  men, 
600  sailors  and  400  soldiers,  iv,  91,  French  tr.)...construits  en 
general  en  bois  et  sans  melange  de  fer,  ils  tiraient  tres  peu  d'eau 
...Les  Arabes  employaient...dans  leurs  constructions  navales  des 
planches  de  cocotiers,  et  ces  planches  etaient  liees  entre  elles  avec 
des  chevilles  de  bois."  And  Rel.  Arabes,  Dis.  Prel.,  p.  56,  "  II  n'y 
a  que  les  navires  de  Siraf  dont  les  pieces  sont  cousues  ensembles," 
ih.,  I,  p.  91 ;  but  Ibn  Batutah  :  "  C'est  avec  des  cordes  de  ce  genre 
que  sont  cousues  les  navires  de  VInde  et  du  Yaman,"  and  he  ad- 
duces as  a  reason  why  iron  is  not  used,  the  rocky  bottom  of  the 
Indian  sea  against  which  iron-bound  vessels  break  to  pieces, 
iv,  121. 


244  INDIAN   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

Srdly.  That  the  last  paragraph  indicates  that  Proco- 
pius  confines  his  observations  to  that  part  of  the  Eed 
Sea  which  is  inclosed  by  coasts  on  either  side,  the 
Arabian  Gulf,  and  that  consequently  the  loadstone  rocks 
referred  to  are  not  those  on  the  Sinhalese  coast,  but 
loadstone  rocks  in  or  near  the  Arabian  Gulf. 

VII.  We  have  Chinese  authority  that  a  great  trade 
between  Eome  and  India  existed  in  the  sixth  century  of 
our  era.  Ma-touan-lin,  born  a.d.  1317,  in  his  Eesearches 
into  Antiquity,  briefly  afl&rms  that  "  India  (a.d.  500-16) 
carries  on  a  considerable  commerce  by  sea  with  Ta-Tsin, 
the  Eoman  Empire,  and  the  Ansi  or  Asse,  the  Syrians  "f 
and  the  Kou-kin-tou-chou  (Ancient  and  Modern  Times), 
having  alluded  to  the  commerce  of  India  with  the  West, 
states  that  the  Eoman  trade  witli  India  is  principally  by 
sea,  and  that  by  sea  the  Eomans  carry  off  the  valuable 
products  of  India,  as  coral,  amber,  gold,  sapphires, 
mother  of  pearl,  pearls  and  other  inferior  stones,  odori- 
ferous plants,  and  compounds  by  concoction  and  distil- 
lation of  odoriferous  plants,  and  then  adds  that  from 
these  compounds  they  extract  the  finest  qualities  for 
cosmetics,  and  afterwards  sell  the  residue  to  the  mer- 
chants of  other  countries.^^    We  observe — 


^  Vide  Chinese  account  of  India,  from  Ma-touan-lin,  tr.  by 
Pauthier,  Asiatic  Journal,  May  to  August,  1836,  pp.  213-7.  For 
the  date  of  Ma-touan-lin's  birth,  v.  his  Life,  Eemusat,  Nouv. 
Melanges  Asiat.,  II,  168,  where  Eemusat  compares  Ma-touan-lin's 
great  work  to  the  Mem.  de  TAcadem.  des  Inscriptions,  and  observes 
that  De  Guignes  in  his  Hist,  des  Huns,  and  the  Jesuit  missionaries 
in  their  several  works,  owe  to  it  much  of  their  knowledge  of  China 
and  Chinese  literature. 

^s  Also  tr.  by  Pauthier,  Journal  Asiatique,  Oct.  and  Nov.,  1839, 


CLAUDIUS   TO    JUSTINIAN.  245 

1st.  That  silk  is  not  included  in  the  list  of  Indian 
merchandise  (the  etBr)  of  Epiphanius)  sent  to  the  Koman 
Empire  by  sea. 

2ndly.  That  this  trade  by  sea  necessarily  presumes 
that  the  goods  exported  from  India  were  known  to 
be  so  exported  either  on  Eoman  account  or  for  the 
Roman  market,  but  not  that  they  were  exported  in 
Eoman  ships.  We  have  seen  that  Eoman  merchants 
sometimes  visited  India,  that  in  India  Eoman  money 
was  current,  and  the  Eoman  Empire  known  and  re- 
spected, and  we  may  fairly  suppose  that  that  Empire, 
its  trade  and  its  wants  and  their  supply,  were  often 
subject  of  talk  in  the  Indian^^  ports,  and  would  certainly 


pp.  278,  380-93.  This  account  seemingly  refers  to  India  in  the 
early  part  of  the  sixth  century  {ih.,  p.  274);  but  it  then  goes  back 
to  speak  of  the  relations  which  had  before  existed  between  Eome 
and  China ;  how  that  (  a.d.  166)  Antun,  Antoninus,  sent  an  embassy 
through  Tonquin  with  presents,  and  how  the  Romans  in  the  in- 
terest of  their  commerce  travelled  as  far  as  Pegu,  Cochin  China, 
and  Tonquin;  and  how  a  Roman  merchant,  one  Lun  (a.d.  222- 
278),  came  to  Tonquin,  and  was  sent  on  by  its  Governor  to  the 
Emperor.  As  Lun  and  his  doings  close  this  short  summary  of 
Roman  relations  with  China,  I  conclude  that  he  was  one  of  the 
merchants  mentioned  above,  and  that  they,  like  him,  belong  to 
the  period  ending  a.d.  278,  when  Roman  commerce  with  the  East 
most  flourished, — and  as,  with  one  unimportant  exception,  no  fur- 
ther notice  is  taken  of  the  Roman  Empire,  I  presume  that  after 
this  time  its  commerce  with  these  distant  regions  entirely  ceased. 
^  When  in  Bochara  (a.d.  1250),  Marco  Polo  meets  the  ambas- 
sadors of  Kublai  Khan,  they  press  him  to  visit  their  master  :  "  eo 
quod  nullum  laiinum  usquam  viderat,  quamvis  videre  multum 
affectabat,"  c.  II.  And  Maffei  (Hist.  Ind.,  L,  iv)  observes  of  the 
Byzantine  Turks  that  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  Indian  kings 
called  them  "  corrupta  GroBca  voce  Rumos  quasi  Romanes."  But 
while  this  indicates  that  the  memory  of  Rome  survived  among  the 


246  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FROM 

become  known  to  the  Chinese  traders  there,  and  would 
as  certainly  be  spoken  of  by  them  on  their  return  home, 
and  would  thus  find  their  way  into  the  works  of  Chinese 
geographers  and  historians. 

But  in  order  that  we  may  not  reason  on  to  a  foregone 
conclusion,  hurrying  over  or  explaining  away  the  events 
and  authorities  which  make  against  us,  we  will  for  a 
moment  suppose  that  they  sufficiently  establish  the  fact 
of  an  ocean  trade  between  Eome  and  India — and  then 
as  from  the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  ending  B.C.  46,  to 
that  of  Firmus,  a.d.  273,  we  know  through  Strabo, 
Pliny,  the  Periplus,  Ptolemy,  and  Yopiscus,  that  Alex- 
andrian ships  sailed  for  India ;  we  have  to  show  w^hy  it 
is  that  after  that  time,  though  we  read  of  Eomans, 
lawyers,  priests,  and  merchants,  who  travelled  thither 
and  all  seemingly  through  Adule  and  one  of  them 
certainly  in  an  Adulitan  craft,  we  read  of  none  who 
went  in  a  Eoman  ship.  How  too  is  it,  we  will  be  asked,  if 
Eoman  ships  thus  crossed  the  Indian  Ocean,  that  neither 
they  nor  their  crews  are  seen  among  the  vessels  and 
peoples  which  according  to  Cosmas  crowd  the  port  and 
thoroughfares  of  the  great  Sinhalese  mart  ?  How,  that 
the  Christians  of  Socotora,  an  island  of  Greek  colonists,^ 
and  right  in  the  course  of  Alexandrian  ships  en  route 
for  India,  were  subject  not  to  the  Greek  but  to  the 

Hindus,  it  is  no  evidence  of  any  commerce  between  the  peoples,  no 
more  evidence  than  is  the  mention  of  an  Indian  princess  in  the 
romance  of  (Peredur  ?)  of  a  knowledge  of  India  among  the  Cam- 
brian bards. 

1  Speaking  of  the  inhabitants,  the  Periplus :  exo-i  Se  ivtlivoi  nai 
etrifjLiKrot  Apafiasv  /cat  en  'EWtjvcov  tcov  npos  epyaaiav  eKirKtovToov. — P. 
281,  §  30. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  247 

Persian  metropolitan  ?2  And  when  Justinian,  as  Pro- 
copiiis  relates,  sought  to  re-establish  the  silk  trade  and 
to  Avrest  it  from  the  hands  of  the  Persians,  how  is  it 
that  he  applied,  not  to  his  own  merchants  of  Alexandria 
whose  services  he  might  have  commanded,  and  whom 
had  they  had  ships  in  those  seas  he  would  have  wished 
to  encourage,  but  to  the  Ethiopian  Arabs,  whom  to  the 
detriment  of  his  own  subjects  he  tempted  with  the 
hopes  of  a  monopoly  ?  Again,  on  this  supposition,  how 
account  for  it,  that  the  loadstone  rocks,  those  myths  of 
Koman  geography,  which  in  Ptolemy's  time,  the  flourish- 
ing days  of  Ptoman  commerce,  lay  some  degrees  east- 
ward of  Ceylon,  appear  a.d.  400  barring  its  western 
approach,  and  a.d.  560  have  advanced  up  to  the  very 
mouth  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  ?^  Surely  an  ocean  trade 
with  India  is,  all  things  considered,  all  but  impossible. 

But  to  return  to  the  loadstone  rocks.  As  in  an  age 
little  observant  of  the  laws  and  phenomena  of  nature, 
lands  unknown  save  by  report  and  unexplored  are  ever 
according  to  their  surroundings  invested  either  with 
mythic  terrors  or  mythic  beauties  ;  and  conversely,  as 
all  lands  in  the  conception  of  which  the  mythic  pre- 
dominates are  lands  which  lie  outside  the  knowledge,  and 

2  That  the  Christian  population  of  Persia  was  large  we  may- 
gather  from  the  reasons  which  Stebocthes,  the  Persian  ambassador, 
urges  upon  Justin  to  dissuade  him  from  breaking  the  truce  with 
Chosroes.  Excepta  e  Legatis,  e  Menandri  Hist.,  p.  315,  Bonn  ed., 
Byzant.  Hist.,  and  that  it  was  loyal  to  its  sovereign  its  conduct  at 
the  siege  of  Chlomaron  indicates,  ib.,  p.  331. 

3  See  supra,  p.  242,  and  the  Pseudo-Callisthenes,  III,  vii,  p.  103, 
Didot,  and  Procopius,  sup.,  p.  38.  For  Ptolemy's  Maniolai  Geog. 
Lib.  vii,  c.  II. 


248  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,   FEOM 

consequently  without  the  sphere  of  intercourse,  of  the 
people  who  so  conceive  of  them ;  it  follows  that  these 
rocks  at  the  very  least  indicate  the  extreme  limits  of 
Eoman  enterprise,  and  the  several  changes  in  their  posi- 
tion, changes  ever  bringing  them  nearer  to  the  Eoman 
Empire,  the  ever  narrowing  range  of  Eoman  enterprise 
in  their  direction.  Their  changes  of  position  therefore 
confirm  our  view  of  the  Eoman  maritime  trade. 

But  though  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  at  this 
period  Eoman  ships  navigated  the  Indian  seas,  we  know 
that  Indian  goods  still  found  their  way  to  Constanti- 
nople, and  from  both  Greek  and  Arab  writers  that  Arab 
vessels  were  employed  in  the  Indian  trade.  So  early  as 
the  age  of  the  Ptolemies,  Agatharchides*  (b.c.  146) 
notices  a  trade  between  Aden  and  the  Indus,  and 
carried  on  in  native  boats,  efjuuopiKa^  tcov  Trpocr^copLuyv 
o-xeBca^.  The  Periplus  (a.d.  80-90)  speaks  (§  26)  of 
Arabia  Eudsemon,  Aden,  as  the  great  entrepot  of  Indian 
commerce  in  the  olden  time,  before  Alexandrian  ships 
ventured  across  the  ocean ;  and  describes  Muza,  Mokha, 
as  a  busy  sea-port  full  of  sea-faring  men,  shipmasters, 
and  sailors,  and  as  trading  with  Barygaza  in  its  own 
craft.^  And  lastly,  Cosmas  (a.d.  535),  among  the  mer- 
chant ships  to  be  seen  at  Ceylon,  mentions  those  of 
Adule  and  the  Homerites.  Arab  writers  also  allude  to 
this  branch  of  Arabian  enterprise.     Thus  Haji  Khalfa,^ 

4  De  Mari  Erythrseo,  c.  103,  p.  191,  II,  Geog.  Grseci  Min.,  ed. 
Miiller. 

^  TO  ixeu  6\ov  Apa^wv  vavKXrjpiKoov  avOpooircau  kui  vavriKcov  vheova^ei 
Kai  Tots  ott'  ifiiropias  irpayfiaa-i  Kiveirai'  avyxpt^t'Tai  yap  rji  rov  nepav 
fpyaaia.  Kai  Bapvya^oof  idiois  i^apriaixois. — §  21,  p.  274,  I,  ih. 

6  "  Ad  qualemcq.  liistorise  Arabum  et  Persarum,  inquit  Hemdani, 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  249 

in  his  sketch  of  the  ante-Islamic  times,  tells  of  the  old 
Arabs  :  how  they  travelled  over  the  world  as  merchants 
and  brought  home  with  them  a  large  knowledge  of  the 
peoples  they  had  visited  :  and  how  to  the  Islanders  of 
Bahrain  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Omman  his  age  owed 
its  histories  of  Sinds,  Hindus,  and  Persians.  And  thus 
though  Masoudi^  implies  that  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventh  century  the  Indian  and  Chinese  trade  with 
Babylon  was  principally  in  the  hands  of  the  Indians 
and  Chinese,  yet  have  we  every  reason  to  believe  from 
the  Eelations  des  Voyages  Arabes,  of  the  ninth  century, 
that  it  was  shared  in  by  the  Arabs  whose  entrepot  was 
Khanfou.^ 


notitiam  sibi  parandam  nemo,  nisi  per  Arabes  pervenire  potest... 
Peragrabant  enim  terras  mercatus  causa,  ita  ut  cognitioneiu 
populorum  sibi  compararent.     Pari  modo,  qui  Hiram  incolebant, 

Persarumque historiam,  Homeritarumq.   bella  et   eorum 

per  terras  expeditiones  cognoscebant.  Alii  qui  in  Syria  versa- 
bantur,  res  Roman.  Israel,  et  Grrsec.  tradiderunt.  Ab  iis  qui  in 
insulis  Bahrain  et  terram  Oinman  consederant  historiam  Sindorum, 
Hindorum  et  Persarum  accepimus.  Qui  denique  in  Yemana 
habitabant  cognitionem  horum  popul.  omnium  consecuti  sunt, 
utpote  regum  erronum  (Sayya'ret)  umbra  tecti."  Haji  Khalfa, 
tr.  Fliigel,  I,  76,  Or.  Tr.  Fund. 

'  "The  Euphrates  fell  at  that  time  (the  time  of  Omar,  died 
A.^.  644)  into  the  Abyssinian  Sea,  at  a  place... now  called  en-Najaf ; 
for  the  sea  comes  up  to  this  place,  and  thither  resorted  the  ships 
of  China  and  India,  destined  for  the  kings  of  El-Hirah,"  p.  246, 
Sprenger's  tr.,  and  I,  pp.  215-6,  French  tr.  But  Reinaud,  who  by 
the  way  has  no  great  confidence  in  Sprenger's  accuracy,  refers 
these  observations  to  the  fifth  century.  See  sujpra,  p.  162,  Emb. 
from  Claudius  to  Justinian. 

8  Relations  Arabes,  p.  12,  which  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
the  dangers  and  mishaps  to  which  the  merchant  was  liable,  and 
which,  p.  68,  shows  the  commerce  with  China  falling  away,  and 


250  INDIAN  EMBASSIES,  FEOM 

But  what  in  the  meanwhile  had  become  of  the  over- 
land trade  with  India  ?  When  in  the  second  half  of 
the  third  century,  and  after  nearly  three  hundred  years 
of  Parthian  rule,  the  Sassanidae.  reasserted  the  Persian 
supremacy  over  the  peoples  of  Central  Asia,  taught  by 
the  misfortunes  and  fall  of  their  predecessors  which 
they  might  not  unfairly  trace  to  a  partiality  for  western 
civilisation,^  they  eschewed  Greek  and  Eoman  manners, 
literature  and  philosophy.  They  besides  restored  and 
reformed  the  national  faith,  the  religion  of  Ormuzd. 
They  cherished  old  national  traditions.  They  boasted 
themselves  lineal  descendants  of  the  old  Persian  kings,^^ 
and  stood  forward  as  the  champions  of  the  national 
greatness.  Their  first  communication  with  Eome  was  a 
threatening  demand  for  all  those  countries  which,  long 
incorporated  with  the  Eoman  Empire,  had  in  old  time 
been  subject  to  the  Persian  dominion.^^  For  a  moment 
it  seemed  as  though  by  force  of  arms  they  would  have 
made  good  their  claim,  but  their  barbaric  pride  proved 
their  overthrow  ;  and  after  they  had  spurned  his  friend- 
ship,^2  ii^Qj  ^^Qj.Q  compelled  to  abate  their  pretensions  in 

why.  In  Ibn  Batutah's  time,  in  so  far  as  the  Chinese  seas  were 
concerned,  "  On  n'y  voyage  qu'avec  des  vaisseaux  Chinois,"  iv,  91 ; 
but  of  these  the  sailors  were  often  Arabs — thus  the  intendant  of 
the  junk  in  which  Ibn  sailed  was  Suleiman  Assafady,  id.,  94;  and 
one  of  the  men  was  from  Hormuz,  96 ;  and  I  think  the  marines 
were  from  Abyssinia. 

9  V.  Tacitus,  Annal.,  L.  II,  c.  2. 

10  Eeinaud,  sur  la  Mes&ne,  pp.  13-14,  tirage  h.  part. 

11  Apra^ep^ns  yap  rns  Uepcrifis  rovs  re  UapBovs . . .viKTi<ra^ . . .arparevnari 
re  'iro\K(f...rri  Supjqt  e<pe^pevcras,  Kai  aneiXcov  avaKrrjaeffdai  iravra  cos  Kai 
TrpoorjKopra  ol  6*c  irpoyovoov,  baa  irore  ol  waA.at  Ylepaai  jxexpi  TVS  'EAAtj- 
viKTfjs  6a\aaarjs  eaxov,  etc. — Dio  Cassius  :  Kai  ai(pi\ivov,  80,  c.  3. 

1^  Sapor,  who  followed  out  the  policy  of  his  father,  and  forbade 


CLAUDIUS  TO  JUSTINIAN.  251 

the  presence  of  the  victorious  Odenatus,  and  subse- 
quently to  buy  a  peace  of  Diocletian  by  a  cession  of 
Mesopotamia  and  the  eastern  borders  of  the  Tigris. 
Thus  stayed  in  their  career  of  conquest  and  even  de- 
spoiled of  their  fairest  provinces,  they  directed  their 
attention  to  the  consolidation  of  their  power  and  the 
development  of  the  resources  of  their  kingdom.  They 
anticipated  and  enforced  that  cruel  policy  which  in 
later  years  was  advocated  by  and  has  since  borne  the 
name  of  Macliiavelli.  Under  one  pretext  and  another, 
and  sometimes  by  force  of  arms,  they  got  within  their 
hands  and  pitilessly  ordered  to  death  the  petty  kings 
who  owned  indeed  their  supremacy,  but  whose  sway 
was  really  despotic  and  allegiance  merely  nominal.^^  To 
the  hitherto  divided  members  of  their  Empire  they 
gave  unity  of  will  and  purpose.  They  made  it  one 
State,  of  which  they  were  the  presiding  and  ruling  mind. 
To  educate  and  enlarge  the  views  of  their  subjects,  they 
did  not,  like  their  predecessors,  study  Greek  and  speak 
Greek,  but  they  collected  and  translated  the  master- 
pieces of  Hindu  literature  and  Greek  philosophy,^*  and 

the  use  of  the  Greek  letters  in  Armenia,  and  promised  to  make 
Merugan  its  king  if  he  would  bring  it  to  the  worship  of  Ormuzd 
(Moses  Khorene,  II,  pp.  83-4,  tr.),  ordered  his  servants  to  throw 
into  the  river  the  rich  gifts,  niyaAoirpfirr]  So  pa,  of  Odenatus,  and 
tore  up  his  supplicatory  letters,  ypaixixara  Seriafos  Bvvafxiv  exovro, 
and  trod  them  under  foot,  and  asked,  "  Who  and  what  he  was  who 
dared  thus  to  address  his  lord  ?  Let  him  come  and  with  bound 
hands  prostrate  himself  before  me  unless  he  is  prepared  to  die, 
and  all  his  race  with  him."  Petri  Patricii  Hist.,  p.  134,  Byzant. 
Hist. 

18  V.  Beinaud,  u.  s.,  pp.  46-7. 

^*  E.  g.  of  Hindu  literature,  the  Pancha  Tantra. — Assemann, 


252  IXDIAX   EMBASSIES,   FROM 

thus  nationalized  them.  They  encouraged  commerce. 
So  early  as  the  fourth  century  of  our  era,  they  entered 
into  commercial  relations  with  China,  whicli  they  culti- 
vated in  the  early  part  of  the  sixth  l3y  frequent  em- 
bassies.^^ We  hear  too  of  their  ambassadors  in  Ceylon, 
and  with  Ceylon  and  the  East  they  carried  on  a  large 
ocean  traffic,  as  the  many  flourishing  emporia  in  the 
Persian  Gulf  sufficiently  indicate,  and  as  Cosmas  dis- 
tinctly affirms.  The  old  overland  route  to  India  also, 
comparatively  neglected  in  the  great  days  of  Palmyra 
and  during  the  troubled  reigns  of  the  last  Parthian 
kings,  regained  under  their  fostering  care  its  old  im- 
portance, and  became  the  gTeat  high-road  over  which 
silk  was  brought  to  Europe.  And  such  was  the  justice 
of  their  rule,^^  and  such  the  protection  and  facilities 
they  afforded  the  merchant,  that  silk  worth  in  Aurelian's 
time  its  weight  in  gold,  and  a  luxury  of  the  rich  and 
noble,  was  in  the  reign  of  Julian  sold  at  a  price  which 
brought  it  within  every  man's  reach.^'^     By  their  treaties 


Bib.  Orient.,  Ill,  222.     Plato  and  Aristotle,  of  Greek  philosophers 
etc., — as  we  may  gather  from  Agathias,  II,  c.  28,  p.  126. 

1'  "  On  a  eu  des  rapports  avec  la  Perse  au  temps  de  la  seconde 
dynastie  des  Wei"  (a  la  fin  du  quatrieme  siecle).  Eemusat,  N.  Eel. 
As.,  I,  248.  "  Ce  royaume,  a.d.  518-19,  payait  un  tribut  consistant 
en  marchandises  du  pays,"  p.  251,  ih.  "  Le  Eoi,  a.d.  555,  fit  oflfrir 
de  nouveaux  presents,"  p.  252. 

16  Agathias,  L.  II,  c.  30,  p.  131,  though  he  speaks  of  the  high 
opinion  he  held  of  the  Persian  rule  to  refute  it. 

17  Of  Aurelian's  time,  Vopiscus :  "libra  enim  auri  tunc  libra 
serica  fuit."  Hist.  Aug.,  II,  187.  Ammianus  Marcellinus  observes 
of  the  Seres:  "conficiunt  sericum,  ad  usus  ante  hac  nobilium, 
nunc  etiam  infimorum  sine  uUa  discretione  proficieas."  Hist., 
xxiii,  6. 


CLAUDIUS   TO   JUSTINIAN.  253 

"with  Jovian  (a.d.  363)  and  with  the  second  Theodosiiis, 
they  not  only  recovered  the  provinces  they  had  lost,  but 
acquired  also,  with  a  not  unimportant  cantle  of  the 
Eoman  territory,  a  portion  of  the  much  coveted  kingdom 
of  Armenia.^^  The  overland  route  was  now  wholly  in 
their  hands,  the  Persian  Gulf  also  was  theirs,  and  when 
towards  the  close  of  Justinian's  reign  Khosroes  Nushir- 
wan^^  overran  Arabia,  and  gave  a  king  to  the  Homerites, 
they  may  be  said  to  have  held  the  Eed  Sea  and  the 
keys  of  all  the  roads  from  India  to  the  West. 

13  The  hundred  years  truce  between  Theodosius  and  Bahram 
concluded  A.D.  422.  Gibbon,  iv,  p.  310.  The  final  incorporation 
of  Armenia  as  Pers-Armenia  with  the  Persian  Empire  took  place 
at  the  commencement  of  the  fourth  century,  ih.,  212. 

19  V.  d'Herbelot,  Bib.  Orientale,  s.  v.,  but  Theophanes  (Hist., 
p.  485)  seems  to  place  this  event  in  the  reign  of  Justin.  Excerp. 
Hist.,  p.  485.     Corpus  Byz.  Hist. 


INDEX. 


Abdera,  24 

Abgari,  19 

Abraham,  161 

Achilleus,  232 

Adad,  Andas,  Aidog,  238 

Aden,  84,  248 

Adule,  161,  196,  216,  232,  233,  246 

.^desius,  179 

^lian,  6,  10,  11,  17,  29,  61,  97, 

98,  136,  159 
^sculapius,  39,  51 
Agatharchides,  188,  232,  248 
Agathias,  252 
Alankava,  176 
Albyrouuy,  15,  216 
Alexander,  3,  7,  8,  11,  13,  15,  22, 

23,  25,  86,  104,  150,  201 
Alex.   Polyhistor,   49,    132,   134, 

135 
Alexandria,  82,  83,  132,  159,  165, 

230 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  42,  104, 

125,  126,   127,    164,   178,    181, 

183,  220,  230,  231,  252 
Ananta,  190 
Anapidu,  140 
Anarajapura,  93 
Annius  Plocamus,  91,  114 
Anthony,  67,  70,  83,  231 
Antioch,  2 

Antiquarian  Eepository,  164 
Antonines,  127,  129,  132 
Antoninus  Pius,  125, 129,138,  153 
Antun,  Marcus  Antoninus,  120, 

153,  243 
Anula,  115,  122 
Aomus,  9 


Apollo,  8,  34 

Apollonius  Tyanensis,  1  to  02 

Apologns,  163 

Appian,  83,  231 

Archelaus,  171  et  seq. 

Ardhavan,  195 

Ardjake,  159 

Aristobalus,  13,  143 

Aristotle,  49 

Aroushi,  8 

Arrian,  1,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  11,  13, 

15,  47,  76,  81,  84,  96,   106,  l!i7, 

121,  128,  133 
Aranoda,  the  Eed  Sea,  4 
Asiatic   Society's    Transactions, 

150 
Asoka,  13,  36,  110 
Asseman,  153,  177,  178,  179,  228, 

237,  238,  239 
Athanasius,  150,  233 
Athens,  15 
Attila,  41 
Augustse     ScriDtores    Historise, 

127, 129,  154, 155, 163,  164,  166 
Augustus,  60,  65,  67,  72,  8(5,  150, 

162 
Aurelian,  129,  163,  165,  167,  232, 

252 
Aurelianus  Victor,  125,  154 
Auxume,  180,  187,  196,  240 
Avienus,  192 
Avitus,  192,  193 

Bab-el-mandeb,  161,  216 
Babylon,  2,  3,  15,  24,  173 
Bacchus,  7,  8,  23,  33,  36,  60,  205 
Bactria,  134,  224 


INDEX. 


255 


Balara,  55 
Balkh,  28 
Barake,  161 
Bardanes,  3,  11,  24 
Bardesanes,  19,  20,  24,  32,  36,  38, 

59,  134,  137,  148,  151,  153,  199 
Baronius,  185 
Barygaza,  81,  162 
Batne,  178 
Bayer,  61 
Berenice,  160 
Bernhardyus,  227 
Bleminyis,  166,  1(37,  205 
Bochart,  30,  99 
V.  Bohlen,  5,  8,  9,  49 
Boutta  V.  Buddha 
Brahmins,  2,  22,  32,  39,  138,  144, 

191,  199 
Bruchium,  165,  165 
Buchanan,  127 
Buddha,  81,   132,  133,  134,  150, 

173,  174,  175,  177,  189,  229 
Bunsen,  137 
Burmah,  129 
Burnell,  109 
Burnes,  4,  5,  7, 12,  22, 28.  34,  36, 

46 
Burnouf,  105,  107,  108,  140,  148, 

150,  200 
Burton,  218 
Byzantium,  161 

Cabool,  5 

Calanus,  36,  72,  143,  149 

Callisthenes,  Pseudo,  23, 196, 228, 

247 
CaUistratus,  137 
Cane,  84,  161 

Caracalla,  132,  154,  163,  165 
Carmani,  Sarmanoi  (?),  190 
Casaubon,  71 
Cashmere,  151 
Castlereagh,  73 
Caucasus,  4,  5,  8,  57 
Cedrenus,  1,  153,  171,  182,  227, 

240 
Ceylon,  91,  104,  216,  219,  221, 

225  . 
Chandragupta,  110,  148 


Chandra  Muka  Siwa,  99 

Chares,  7 

Charra,  171 

China,  130 

Chinese,  129,  130,  219 

Cissia,  8 

Cicero,  57 

Caudius,  85,  91,  99,  114,  125,  126 

Clemens  Alexandrinus,  132,  133, 

134,  135,  136,  175,  230 
Clitarchus,  f)0,  209 
Cochin  China,  129 
Colebrooke,  157 
Constantine,  180,  183,  184,  234 
Constantius,  126,  178,  181,  182, 

183 
Coptos,  160 
Cook,  1 
Cophen,  5,  6 
Cornwallis,  5 
Cos,  131 
Cosmas,   91,   92,   104.    126,  214, 

230,  233,  239,  246,  248 
Ctesias,  11,  12,  26,  33,  34,  51,  52, 

58,  137,  157,  189,195,243 
Cumarilla,  150 
Cureton,  153,  154 
Cyril,  134,  135,  171,  172,  173, 174 

D'Alwis,  105,  109 

D'Anville,  80 

Damascius,  189,  237 

Damis,  162  passim 

Dandamis,  137,  201 

Darius,  3 

Davy,  Dr.,  121 

Day,  127,  232 

Deriades  &  Duryodhana,  204,  etc. 

Dewanamapatisso,  36 

Dhatusera,  111 

Dimnos,  Damianus,  Dunaan,  238 

Dion  Cassius,  68,  69,  71,  73,  74, 

75,85,  125,  127,  165,250 
Dion  Chrysostom,  36,  61,  62, 126, 

127,  128,  134,  156,  189 
Diocletian,  232,  251 
Diodorus  Siculus,  61,  134,  138, 

143 
I  Dionysius,  9,  207,  208 


256 


INDEX. 


Dionysius  Periegetes,  128,  192, 

200,  201,  204 
Divi,  126,  lb8 
Domitian,  54 
Domninos,  1,  2 
Dracontius,  192,  193 
Draupati,  213 
Dubois,  208 
Dutugamini,  92,  122 

Eden,  193 

Elagabalus,  128,  129,   137,  153, 

155 
Elaro,  122 

Elesboas,  217,  226,  238,  239,  240 
Ellis,  98 
Elphinstone,  5,  6,  13,  15,  24,  28, 

36 
Emesa,  137 
Epbrein  Syrus,  177 
Epiphanius,   153,  155,  171,   172, 

173,  176,  233,  235,  245 
Ersch  and  Gruber,  Encyc,  127 
Eratosthenes,  12,  57,  95,  97,  111 
Eretrians,  2,  3 
Ethiopia,  225 
Eudoxus,  193 
Euphrates,  82,  162 
Eusebius,  38,  70,  129,  153,  166, 

180,  230 
Eustathius,  9,  200,  205,  210,  227 
Eutropius,  154 
Ezekiel,  100,  101 

Fa-hian,  91, 93, 96, 197,  202,  222 
Fauche  v.  Mahabharata 
Firmus,  166,  167,  240 
Flugel,  82 
Florus,  68,  72 
Forbes,  6,  78,  81 
Foucaux,  175,  190 
Frumentius,  179.  etc. 

Gallienus,  163 
Ganga,  158 
Ganges,  28,  40,  158 
Gar u  da,  4 

Georgius  Syncellus,  70 
Germanai  v.  Sramans 


Gesenius,  82 
Gibbon,  82,  237,  253 
Gildemeister,  53,  174,  212,  218 
Goldstucker,  108,  110,  152 
Gollas,  King  of  White  Huns,  222 
Gronovius,  120 
Guignes,  de,  244 

Hadrian,  127,  163,  165 

Haji  KUalfa,  249 

Hakluyt,  229 

Hamilton,  93,  112 

Hardy,  36,   138,    140,  141,    147, 

148 
Harivansa,  175,  213 
Hastings,  Warren,  156 
Hawkesworth,  1 
Heeren,  65,  82,  225 
Herbelot,  176 
Helesthseus  v.  Elesboas 
Hercules,  23,  33,  36,  132 
Herodotus,  2,  4,  13,  65,  96,  207 
Hierocles,  38,  193,  195 
Hieronymus  v.  St.  Jerome 
Hilgenfeld,  19,  155 
Himalaya,  150 
Hindu-kush,  4,  57 
Hiouen-Thsang,    13,  17,  18,  57, 

66,  81,  91,  93,  96,  221 
Hippalus,  99,  107 
Hippuros,  91,  99,  102 
Hodgson,  175 
Holland,  Sir  H.,  6 
Holland,  Philemon,  164 
Homer,  42,  44,  81 
Homerites,  Hamyarites,  189 
Horace,  67,  72 
Houan-ti,  130 
Hydraotis,  25,  26 
Hyphasis,  25,  28,  54 

Iarchas,  25,  54 

Ibn  Batuta,  12,   16,  47,  50,  94, 

219,  223,  243,  250 
Ichthyophagi,  55 
India,  2,  passim 
Indians,  Arabs,  236 
Indicopleustes  v.  Cosmas 
Indus,  11,  212 


I 


INDEX. 


257 


Isidorus,  189 
Isidorus  Characeni,  76 

Jacob,  Sir  G.  le  G.,  121 
Jains,  the,  144 
Jambulus,  60 

James,  St.,  of  Sarug,  178,  179 
Jerome,  St.,  69,  71,  72,  134,  175 
Jerusalem,  173 
John  of  Cappadocia,  1 26 
Joinville,  96 
Jomandes,  41 
Jove,  8,  11 

Journal  Asiatique,  226 
Juba,  10,  11 

Julia  Domna,  56,  128,  136 
JuUan,  125, 176,  179,  181,  234 
Julien,  78,  94 
Juliopolis,  160 
Julius  Africanus,  19 
Julius  Pollux,  131 
Justinian,    125,    126,    234,  239, 
247 

Kadphises,  74,  77 

Kalliena,  81 

Kanischka,  67 

Karnapava,  6 

Klaproth,  175,  176 

Knox,  96,  98,  105 

Kolan  Natannawana,  Upham's, 

121 
Krishna,  8 
Kublai  Khan,  4,  65,  245 

Lane,  28 

Langlois,  v.  Harivansa 

Lanka  v.  Ceylon 

Lao-Tseu,  176 

Lassen,  7,  15,  74,  77,  92,  98,  102, 

103,  104, 107, 109, 110, 112,  135, 

138, 157,  177,  207 
Lausius,  195 
Lenormant,  102 
Lepidus,  70 
Libanius,  178 
Lucan,  29 
Lun,  130,  245 
Lycophron,  9 


Lycotas,  67 


Maffei,  84,  229,  234,  245 
Mahabharata,  8, 52, 148, 191, 195, 

200,  204,  212 
Mahawanso  v.  Turnour,  113, 114, 

116,  118,  122,  175,  201 
Mains,  70,  72 
Mailla,  176 
Makrobioi,  200 

Malalas,  1,  126,  237,  238,  239, 240 
Malet,  6 

Manava  Dharma,  139 
Manes,  17 J,  177,  238 
Maniolai,  197 
Manou,  8 

Marcellinus  v.  Ammianus 
Marcellus  de,  207 
Marcianus,  104,  201 
Marco  Polo,  4,  33,  44,  65,  93,  95, 

222,  224,  229,  245 
Mandura,  52 

Marcus  Aurelius,  130,  153,  154 
Martial,  73 
Masoudi,  5,  49,  58,  162,  197,  200, 

216,  224,  249 
Matouanlin,  96,  244 
Maurice,  175 
Mela  Pomponius,   99,  110,  120, 

141,  167 
Melania,  186 
Mendez  Pinto,  58 
Megasthenes,  8,  20,  32,  47,  49, 

52,  60,  94,  109,  110,  112,  138, 

137,  138,  143,  147,  148 
Merx,  155 
Menu,  7,  16,  17,  23,  31,  37,  38, 

138, 139, 141, 144, 145, 146,  147, 

202 
Meropius,  179  et  seq^ 
Meros,  8 
Meru,  7,  8,  52 
Messalina,  99 
Metrodorus,  179,  182 
Miiller,  107,  135 
Minerva,  34 
Minos,  43 
Montfaucon,  104 
Moor,  31,  158,  189,  195 

S 


258 


INDEX. 


Moorcroffc,  53 

Morrheus,  210,  212,  213 

Morrison,  95 

Moses  Khorene,  251 

Musaeus,  or  Moses  Episcopus,  1 95 

Muziris,  161,  16:^,  197 

Napier,  Sir  C,  5,  12,  14,  36 

Narses,  337 

Neander,  185 

Nearchus,  18,  29,  56,  143 

Nelson,  109,  120,  136 

Nelcyndon,  161,  163 

Nero,  85 

Nicolaus  Damascenus,  60,65.  73, 

78,81 
Nile,  12 
Nineveli,  2,  13 

Nonnos,  the  Dionysiacs,  203  et  seg. 
Nonnosus,  196,  239 
Nysa,  Mount,  7,  8,  57 

OCELIS,  161 

Odenatus,  162,  281 

Olearius,  17,  22,  34,  54 

Olympiodorus,  226 

Onesicritus,  5,  11,  12,  29,  36,  47, 

58,  95,  112,  141,  189 
Ophir,  100 
Origen,  135,  155 
Orontes,  204 
Orosius,  70,  71,  72 
Oswif,  33 

Owen,  Professor,  31 
Oxydi-acse,  22,  23 

Pagala,  55 

Palseogonoi,  109 

Palibothra,  60 

Palissemundus,  93,  104,  105,  107 

Palladiiis,  186,  195,  228,  233 

Palamedes,  41 

Palmyra,  82,  127,  132,  159,  162, 

230 
Pan,  133 
Pandya,  Pandion,  68,  72,  78,  80, 

115 
Panjab,  6 
PoHno,  65 


Papasudana,  152 

Paraka,  58 

Paravant,  81 

Patala,  54 

Patricius,  228 

Pausanias,  129, 131,  294 

Pauthier,  75,  129,  244 

Pentaour,  204 

Periplus,  The,  v.  Arrian,  and  127, 

161,  162,  232,  248 
Peshawar,  4 
Petrus  Patricius,  251 
Petrus  Siculus,  174 
Philalethes,  Ceylon,  98 
Philosophi  Desc.  Orbis,  190 
Philostorgius,  188 
Philostratus,  1  to  62  passim,  136, 

160,  194 
Photius,  153,  174,189 
Phraotes,  14,  17,  21,  25,  38,  44, 

54 
Pliny,  11,  12,  36,  50,  73,  76,  82, 

91,  99,  106.  107,  110,  116,  119, 

120,  131, 160, 161, 162, 190, 194, 

212  231 
Plutarch,  34,  60,  61,  72,  128,  130 
Plutarch,  Pseudo,  210 
Polo  V.  Marco 
Polygnotus,  14 
Porphyry,  10,  32,  34,  36,  54,  134, 

153 
Porus,  13,  14,  15,  25,  65,  66,  72, 

78 
Poseidippus,  29,  30,  59 
Pritchard,  121 
Prabodhatschandradaja,  133,143, 

147 
Pramat'has,  4 
Probus,  167,  171 
Procopius,  161, 164,  178, 179,  222, 

223,  233,  238,   239,   241,   242, 

243,  247 
Prometheus,  4 
Propertius,  67 
Proteus,  42 

Ptolemies,  The,  246,  248 
Ptolemy,  98,  102,  104,  105,  107, 

128,  161,  197,  198,212,222,247 
Paunna,  Purna,  141,  150 


INDEX. 


259 


Pythagoras,  49 

QUINTUS  CUBTIUS,  128 

Eachias,  103,  116,  119.  121 
Eaajah  Tarangini,  6, 52, 141, 149, 

151,  152,  157 
Eajavali,  the  Upham,  202 
Eama,  116 

Eamayana,  Fauche,  109,  121 
Earn  Eaz,  13 
Eavana,  195,  214 
Eawlinson,  Sir  H.,  162 
Eemusat,  244,  252 
Ehadamanes,  the,  210 
Eebeyro,  96 
Eeinaud,  15,  83,  56,  60,  65,  67, 

120,    130,   141,  142,    162,  216, 

222,  226,  219 
Eelations  Arabes,  Eeinaud,  221, 

224,  228,  234,  243,  249 
Eost,  65,  66 
Eouge  de,  204 
Eubruquis,  75 
Eufinus,  179 

Sakta  Sinha  Buddha,  1 75 
SamansBoi,  Sarmanoi,i?.  Sramans 
Samgha,  140,  146,  150 
Salike,  Serendiva,  v.  Ceylon 
Sandanes,  137,  153, 156 
Sandy  a,  152 
Sapor,  250 
Sassanidse,  250 
Scaliger,  70 
Schlegel,  8 

Scholasticus,  Theban  :  227,  228 
Schrockh,  179, 186,  188 
Schwanbeck,  8,  110,  135 
Scylax  from  Tzetzes,  208 
Scythianus,  171,  202,  233 
Semnoi,  v.  Sramans 
Sera,  Cera,  Seras,  117 
Serse,  Sores,  95,  119,  120,  121 
Sevendivi,  126 
Sette  Communi,  3 
Severus,132,  154,165 
Severus  Alexander,  165 
Severus,  Consul,  189,  236 


Sinai,  217 

Sindbad,  91,2:)2 

Singha  Eajah,  115 

Sissia,  2 

Sila,  213 

Siva,  8,  13,80,  152,  158 

Smith,  Biographical  Dictionary, 

72,  82,  99,  126,  128,  154,  183, 

186,  187 
Sopater,  91,  92,  104,  223,  235 
Socotora,  216,224 
Socrates,  Ec.  Hist.  179,  186 
Solinus,  94,  97 
Solomon,  100,  101 
Sophocles,  39 
Sophoi  V.  Brahmans 
Sora,  117 
Soroadeios,  8  - 
Soter,  153 
Sozomen,  179 
Speke,  96 
Sramans,   2,  132,  134,  138,   139, 

145,  147,  148 
Stephanos    of  Byzantium,  143, 

207,  208,  227 
Stobseus,  137,  152. 
Stobera,  55 
Strabo,  passim,  4,  31,    84,  162, 

194,  212,  231 
Seutonius,  68,  69,  72,  73,  85 
Suidas,  200,  227 
Sura,  83 
Suryadeva,  8 
Susa,  3 
Sutadeva,  8 

Tacitus,  85,  250 

Tambapanni  Taprobane,  v.  Cey- 
lon 

Tantalus,  43,  48,  54 

Tarshish,  100 

Tathsin,  v.  China 

TaxHa,  11,  13,  15 

Taylor,  97,  118,  120 

Tennent,  Sir  E.,  92,  96,  99,  100, 
101,  103,  108,  113,  116,  199 

Terebinthus,  176 

Thebes,  8 

Theodoric,  3 


260 


INDEX. 


Theodosius,  253 

Theophanes,  183,  185,  238,  239, 

240,  241,  253 
Theophilus  the  Indian,  188 
Thilo,  137 
Thomas,  K.,  137 
Thomas  of  Edessa,  223 
Thucydides,  19 
Tibullus,  67 
Tillemont,  184 
Tonquin,  13U 
Trajan,  82,  125,  126,  154 
Troyer  v.  Eadja  Tarangini 
Turnour  v,  Mahawanso,  99,  101, 

105,  111,  212 
Tzetzes,  29,  30,  55,  194 

Ulysses,  41 
Uma,  152 
Upham,  93,  202 

Yalesius,  182,  185, 187,  188 

Varuna,  8 

Venus,  26,  27 

Veddahs,  199 

Vespasian,  85 

Vicentino,  3 

Vincent,  80,  84,  95,  107,  108,  112 

Virgil,  67 

Vishnu,  8,  13,  189 


Vishnu  Purana,  6,  7,  8, 15, 25,  38, 

40,  52,  197 
Vologesia,  162 
Vopiscus,  167,  246 
Vossius,  105,  107,  110 

Ward,  208 

Waterton,  28 

Weber,  157 

Wijayo,  100,  103,  108 

Wilford,  4,  13,  25,  40,  49,  52, 113 

Wilkinson,  28 

Wilson,  H.  H.,  7,  9,  12,  13,  26, 

52,   75,  77,  80,  104,  137,  146, 

204,  207,  208,  21 3 
Windt,  9,  4,  107 

Xerxes,  48 

Zanj,  Sea  of,  216,  218 
Zanzibar,  218 
Zarmanochegas,  66 
Zarmaros,  69 
Zazana,  185 
Zenobia,  129,  163, 166 
Zeuxis,  14 
Zohrab,  70 
Zonaras,  125 
Zosimus,  163,  179 


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